For some reason I keep coming back to these three players as young players on similar trajectories in their NBA careers whilst in differing basketball environments and each equipped with varying skill sets. This column will examine which player would be the best player to build a team around if you were the GM of an NBA team.
NBA Building Blocks: Gordon Hayward, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard.
I’d best set the table before I serve my question.
Money Talks
Kawhi Leonard is 23 years old, Gordon Hayward is 24 years old and Klay Thompson is 25 years old. Leonard is the only player still on his rookie contract ($1.8m this year) whereas Hayward and Thompson both signed extension which begin next year (at $63m over 4 years and $70m over 4 years respectively). Leonard is expected to sign an even gaudier contract this summer.
Team Role
Each of these players has been pegged as the future of their teams.
Kawhi Leonard plays for the San Antonio Spurs: a team of selfless basketball jedi masterminds. They have the best coach in the league and the best power forward to ever play the game, both of whom are nearing retirement. Despite the myriad of Hall of fame players on the team Leonard is the second best player in the organisation: He’s the owner of the 2014 NBA Finals MVP award [fourth youngest to ever win it] and widely considered one of the elite defenders in the league capable of disturbing the world’s best point guards (Chris Paul) and small forwards (Lebron James) alike thanks to his remarkable length and athleticism. [Seriously if you take nothing else from this column at least google the size of Leonards hands].
Gordon Hayward plays for the woeful Utah Jazz. His career arc couldn’t have been more different than Leonard’s. Outside of his rookie season his mentor and head coach had been Ty Corbin; a then first time coach who never figured out how to utilise his teams skill set and brought the team to the lottery for three years straight [if you don’t follow the NBA you should note that being in the NBA lottery IS NOT a good thing for teams attempting to win a championship]. Hayward didn’t feel pressure to perform until after the 2013 when the Utah Jazz blew up the roster and traded NBA all-stars Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap to allow their younger players develop. To Haywards credit he showed surprising resolve during this transition with every facet of his game improving. Hayward is a small forward who can score, defend, pass, rebound and lead a team. He is a jack of all trades who does everything very well but is not necessarily elite at any one facet of the game.
Klay Thompson plays for the world favourite Golden State Warriors. You might know him as one of the Splash Brothers or as the son of former NBA player Mychal Thompson. He is the second offensive option on the league’s best NBA team (both defensively and offensively). Before the draft nbadraft.net said he was an average athlete who plays below the rim and has an NBA comparison of Marco Bellinelli.
Here’s a split of Belinelli and Thompsons stats this year per basketball-reference.com:
Belinelli: 9.7ppg/2.5rb/1.8a/0.5s/0.1b/439%fg/382%3g
Thompson: 22.3ppg/3.4rb/2.9a/1.2s/0.8b/.469%fg/.439%3g
Thompson is one of the elite shooters in the league and best two way players in the league. His elite shooting stretches the floor for his team which allows his team’s big men (power forward and centre) more room to operate in the paint and the wings (guards, small forward) more space to drive the lane.
So here lies my question: in a hypothetical world where you could aquire one of these players for a new NBA team, which one would be the best to build around?
I asked some other NBA fans about this
Charles Douglas:
“So hard. None are true leaders (Hayward) more so than Thompson and Leonard. Thompson has the best chance to become a franchise player IMO, so maybe him. I’d also like to see Leonard play on a team that isn’t the Spurs that is smart and gives him good looks etc”.
This is the same argument that Kevin Durant had with a twitter troll: that Leonard is a nice player but it’s difficult to say if his success is simply a product of his environment. Durant went on to say that Paul George would have the same success in the Spurs but is a better player.
Michael Lindsay:
“On the face of it I’d say Leonard. When he’s been the go to man a la finals last year he’s been deadly. Defence is first class and has an offensive game that is improving every year”
Ilya Demeshev:
“My initial thought was Leonard until i remembered who he plays for, this is the Spurs we are talking about, he plays in arguably the best system in the world designed to make him amazing, take him out the system and who knows. That made me lean more towards Hayward he is continuously improving has the all round game and is already a proven number 1 option. No offence to Thompson but his game isn’t exactly suited to being the MAN on the team (ala Wade) having said that, if put in that situation, maybe he grows into it. But after all of this i still say Leonard, there is no substitute for winning a NBA finals MVP and the experience to reach it”
Dion Willcocks
“Tough but if I had to pick I would go Leonard. Yes he plays in a good system, but he has also only been the third/fourth scoring option on the Spurs for the past couple of years. His ceiling is massive, as seen in last years Finals when he was relied on more heavily. His defence is unrivaled. He has shown time again that he can shut down top rated swingmen when required (Lebron, KD), as well as possessing an offensive arsenal capable of dismantling teams defences. Watch him go gangbusters once Timmy D retires and he is relied upon more as a primary option”
Tom McKnight:
“I’m going against the grain and putting in a vote for Klay Thompson. I don’t totally agree with the notion that he isn’t suited to being the MAN aka his game two games ago when he dropped 39 when Curry was out. From having him in fantasy this year (noted some bias here) and following his demeanour and personality I really think he’d thrive when thrown the opportunity to be the MAN. Not only a proven shooter and lock down defender but a hell of an improved post player and can get to the foul line, and if were going to talk about potential the latter are areas he’ll vastly improve in in the coming years. Leonard I feel had a fantastic play off series where he took everybody by surprise, but I don’t know if he has that killer attitude to solely carry a franchise. I feel half the time so much attention is put on Duncan, Parker and Manu that he is the ‘forgotten’ threat – which he does take full on advantage of, but how he’d go with more pressure, expectation, and when defences are solely set around shutting him down I’m unsure”.
Louis Cassells:
The thing about these three players is that you can’t go wrong by picking any of them. For me it comes down to the coach, the system and the surrounding players on the team. If the team were the Charlotte Hornets you would take Klay Thompson because he could stretch the floor for Al Jefferson to operate in the paint and allow Michael Kid-Gilchrist to play one on one against his man and drive to the rim. Thompson is the best off the ball and a hard-nosed defender so a backcourt of him and the NY maestro Kemba Walker would be a lot of fun on both sides of the floor. If the team were the New York Knicks I would likely want Kawhi Leonard so that he could play off of the best player without a championship, Carmelo Anthony (pardon my ridiculous bias). This would allow both players to attack and shoot on offence within the triangle system and on defence it allows both players to switch seamlessly whilst letting Carmelo take all the glory.
A team needs to find their go to guy early in their cycle of building and because of this I would take Gordon Hayward if I were the GM of a new NBA team. At present Hayward has a Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 20.35; good for the fourth best among small forwards and right behind Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony. Klay Thompson has a better PER at 21.11 and Leonard sits at a respectable 19.28 but, as aforementioned, they play on teams stacked with talent and with spectacular coaches. For what it’s worth, Hayward has a better estimated wins added (EWA) at 9.6 than Thompson’s 9.1 or Leonard’s 5.4 and has already demonstrated an ability and a desire to be the leader of the team he’s on.
Last Word
Obviously none of these three players will be traded any time soon, so the argument is moot. What’s truly sad amongst all this is that of the three players Thompson is the only one who may never get a chance to lead his own team. Gordon Hayward already has a bad team that he is steering towards a better record and Kawhi Leonard will be passed the torch once Tim Duncan retires in the next few years but Klay Thompson will be Stephen Currys’ Robin for as long as he plays for him.
*Source: Mitch Webb, Champions Circle Member
