Former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas has put out some relatively hot takes in recent years, some of them simply archaic as one could imagine.
Now, four years removed from actually suiting up in the NBA, Arenas decided that he’d extend these hot takes to the basketball world.
In a recent post on Instagram, Arenas concluded that San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard is not a top-five player in the Association:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFPlmsePP4H/
Arenas’ reasoning is skewed by horrendous grammar, and frankly, some hard-to-understand sentences.
But it’s clear what the former three-time All-Star thinks about Leonard. Simply put, Arenas believes the two-time reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year is more a product of Gregg Popovich’s system in San Antonio.
From what we can decipher, Arenas respects the Spurs’ system more than he respects the players.
Here’s a quote from his post that we tweaked a tad for readability:
“Their (the Spurs) average to above average players, playing together as one unit makes them a super team. It’s like when you see a group of girls, one looks very good compared to the rest so she gets the most attention. But if you match her up against other pretty girls, you realize she isn’t that cute.”
Essentially, the idea here is that Leonard wouldn’t have success outside of San Antonio.
To be clear, Arenas surely has a point regarding Pop’s system. He puts the players in the best situation to succeed. And in reality, those who have moved on from the Spurs have not performed at the same level they did in San Antonio.
One issue with this logic. San Antonio doesn’t let elite-level players leave in free agency. They are usually rewarded with a big contract and retained for the long haul.
That’s one of the primary reasons the Spurs have been the most successful team in the Association over the past two decades.
All this was in response to Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry winning his second consecutive MVP award, a vote that saw Leonard finish second behind Curry.
Leonard is coming off a 2015-16 regular season that saw him average 21.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 51 percent from the field.