A first time All-Star, San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard is having the best season of his career and is in the running for the MVP award. A lockdown defender, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year has taken his offensive game to the next level this season and is shooting 50 percent and 47.8 percent from three while averaging 20 points.
Leonard has blossomed in his fifth season into a superstar and is now leading the Spurs, a fact LaMarcus Aldridge recently proclaimed. His growth and development has been vital to San Antonio's success this season and according to the Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Leonard is "perhaps the best two-way player in the league now.”
From CSN's Monte Poole (via The Score):
And look at Leonard now, the 2014 NBA Finals MVP, regarded by some as the most complete player in the league.
"We always talk about two-way players and how important it is, especially in the modern NBA, where you can't hide a guy at either end," Kerr said. "He's probably the best two-way player in the league now."
"You have to deal with him in all kinds of different ways," Kerr said. "He's a terror on defense, and offensively he's gotten better and better. His 3-point shooting is really, really good. And he's so strong that he can score around the rim. He's a great player, and it's kind of slowly but surely become his team in a lot of ways."
With Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, the Warriors have two of the better two-way players in the league as well. And while it is fair to argue that either Green or Thompson are stronger two-way players than Leonard, the Spurs forward is very much in the conversation. Something that their own coach readily acknowledges.
