Column: Can Kawhi Leonard and Paul George Coexist?
When the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and made the trade for Paul George in the summer of 2019, it signified the organization's confidence in the duo's ability to bring home a championship. Two years later, that has yet to be accomplished.
While strides have certainly been made, despite injuries and a pandemic complicating the process, the Kawhi and PG era has not yet fulfilled its prophecy. With the NBA's landscape being drastically altered by injuries this postseason, one could easily argue that a healthy Clippers team would have dominated these injury-plagued playoffs. Unfortunately, the Clippers were one of the teams that got hit the hardest by the injury bug. Already down their starting center, Serge Ibaka, the Clippers lost Kawhi Leonard in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals.
At the time Kawhi came down with an ACL sprain, the Clippers were on their way to a 118-104 victory over the Utah Jazz; however, most importantly, they were about to tie the series 2-2. While the Clippers won the game, they lost Kawhi Leonard. They would go on to win the series behind the heroics of Paul George and Terance Mann, but the loss of Kawhi Leonard was too much to overcome in the next round.
Had Kawhi not gone down with an ACL sprain, it is very likely that nobody would be questioning the compatibility of Kawhi and PG as a duo. After fighting off a resilient and talented Dallas Mavericks team, the Clippers' star duo really looked like they were peaking at the right time.
In their two wins against Utah before Kawhi went down, the duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George posted a 126.3 ORTG, and a +10.3 NTRG. This level of dominance was not new for this tandem, because during the regular season Kawhi and PG posted a 122.5 ORTG and a +17.6 NTRG in the 1,028 minutes they played together. Amongst all duos who played at least 1,000 minutes together in the regular season, Kawhi and PG's +17.6 NTRG was 2nd best in the entire league, while their 122.5 ORTG ranked 1st in all of basketball.
With the numbers affirming not only Kawhi and PG's ability to coexist, but dominate together, where does the skepticism surrounding their compatibility stem from? While much of it can be attributed to uninformed and misguided slander, there are some valid concerns regarding this duo's ceiling.
Perhaps now more than ever, people are beginning to realize that regular season basketball does not directly translate to playoff basketball. While certain trends remain consistent, the skill gap between good and great becomes exponentially magnified. If a team or a player has a flaw, it will be targeted and exposed. In the Clippers' two playoff runs since acquiring Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the team has performed best when just one of the two are on the floor.
In the 2020 playoffs, the Clippers had a +1.1 NTRG when Kawhi and PG were on the floor together, as opposed to the +5.6 mark when Kawhi was on the floor without PG. Perhaps even more staggering, was the team's +10.9 NTRG when PG was on the floor without Kawhi. To summarize, in the 2020 playoffs, the Clippers were at their best when just one of Kawhi and PG were on the floor.
Fast-forward to the 2021 playoffs, and this trend did not change. When Kawhi and PG were on the floor together this postseason, the Clippers posted a +1.3 NTRG. That mark jumped to +8.4 when PG was on the floor without Kawhi, and +14.9 when Kawhi was on the floor without PG.
Is this concerning? Well, for this trend to remain consistent for consecutive postseasons, there may certainly be some validity to the idea that Kawhi and PG are not an ideal pairing. The players' similar play styles, with neither being overly proficient playmakers, could be one explanation for the numbers that were just presented. However, the more important question, is whether this duo's flaws are fatal to the point that they cannot coexist at a level needed to win a championship.
While Kawhi and PG's time on the court together has been far from perfect, reasons for optimism certainly exist. Their regular season dominance combined with their postseason peaks have given fans a glimpse at what their ceiling could look like. Those final two games against Utah before Kawhi sprained his ACL were two of the most complete games that Kawhi and PG had played as a duo. Their offense was clicking, their defensive was stifling, and the end result was two very convincing wins against the league's best team. Had they been able to carry that momentum together into the WCF, we likely would be writing an NBA Finals preview article rather than columns such as this.
With Kawhi Leonard and Paul George seemingly beginning to peak as a duo during the 2021 Western Conference Semi-Finals, it is unfortunate that their full potential was stopped from coming to fruition this year; however, there is significant reason for optimism surrounding the idea that this tandem's ceiling is indeed an NBA Championship.
