Ever wonder why Kawhi Leonard is able to score efficiently? It’s because of his mastery of the fundamentals (or in other words, the old man game).
As I was scrolling through Twitter one day, procrastinating as I usually do before getting to work, I came across this clip of Kawhi Leonard:
ON THIS DAY (April 27, 2019) Kawhi dropped a playoff career-high 45 PTS on 70% (16-23) shooting in the @Raptors 108-95 victory over Philadephia in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals! pic.twitter.com/lHMRRV6y5m
— NBA Canada (@NBACanada) April 27, 2020
Boy was that fun to reminisce. It was a treat to watch him pull up and obliterate his opponents again.
It was from the first game of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals in 2019 (yes, this is the year the Toronto Raptors won the NBA title).
Leonard scored 45 points and secured the Raps the win. This was also, at the time, his playoff career-high.
But what I was impressed with the most was his shooting percentage from that game. He made 70 percent of his shots! He took 23 and made 16.
So, I got to wondering -how was he able to sustain his energy? Remember this was the second round of the playoffs.
First -and this is obvious- load management.
This played a huge part in preventing fatigue. But his consistency on the offensive end was fantastic. Most players aren’t able to score like that even if they’re at the peak for the season.
So I pondered.
And what I came up with is that it was all because of his old man game.
Kawhi Leonard’s Old Man Game
Ok, I know how this may seem like I’m pushing this style of play on you.
But if you watch the clip, all of the baskets Kawhi made were a result of him mastering the fundamentals of basketball.
He plays like this on the regular too. He didn’t pull out a bunch of tricks from his bag.
Rather, he posted up, did spin moves, and took some contested mid-range jumpers.
Nothing fancy at all. And it was highly efficient and effective.
Kawhi’s success just shows that you don’t need to be a gifted ball-handler to play basketball well. And as average Joes, I know not many of you can handle the ball like a Kyrie Irving or Tim Hardaway or Allen Iverson.
But you don’t need to. You just need to do the fundamentals to the best of your ability.
So work on your mid-range shots, basic layup package, dribbling with both hands, basic passes and the basic spin move and crossover.
These will be enough to get you points at pick-up games and rec league games.
There are other skills that you should work on too.
But these are the basics of the basics for scoring –the things you need to be able to do before anything else.
But if you were to just master these and nothing else, that ain’t bad either.
I mean, the pro players from the 30s and 40s pretty much only had these moves in their bag.
Final Thoughts
Kawhi Leonard is one of the best scorers in the NBA.
His offense is highly skilled, efficient, and effective because most of the things he does are fundamentals.
So, if you want to become an elite player, practice your fundamentals.