What Could Have Been….Kawhi Leonard In A Suns Uniform
Throughout the history of the Phoenix Suns, there have been a number of things that have kept the franchise from winning a NBA championship.
Some of it has just been rotten luck for whatever reason. The Suns losing the coin flip to the Milwaukee Bucks for the services of Lew Alcindor and losing Game 5 of the 1976 Finals in Boston to the Celtics are probably the two biggest examples of that.
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There’s also been a lot of mismanagement by the Phoenix front office as well. Over the years, general managers of the organization have made some head-scratching free agent signings and have whiffed on some draft picks.
The 2011 draft may go down as one of those memorable ones in the history of the franchise. That season, the Suns took Markieff Morris with the 13th overall pick. Markieff’s brother and now teammate, Marcus, went one selection after to the Houston Rockets.
It’s the player who went at No. 15 which will probably come back to haunt the Suns for years to come.
Who’s that player you might ask? It’s none other than Kawhi Leonard, who has been the talk of this postseason so far.
Through three games in the playoffs so far, the 23-year-old is averaging 24.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 2.3 assists. He put together his best game last night in the Spurs Game 3 win over the Clippers, where Leonard had 32 points on 13-of-18 shooting while playing unreal defense.
After getting off to a slow start in the beginning of this season due to mostly injuries, Leonard put together one heck of a year. He set career highs in pretty much every statistical category while helping lead the Spurs to yet another postseason appearance.
Leonard’s great season was topped off by him winning the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award, the first time it went perimeter defender since Ron Artest in 2004. Not too bad for a guy who wasn’t even a lottery pick.
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Considering how poor the Phoenix defense was this past season, it would have been nice to have Leonard in a Suns uniform. His shooting from the perimeter could have helped as well.
Now, the Suns not selecting Leonard back in 2011 and taking Morris instead is not a diss on Markieff. He’s turned into a pretty nice role player who won the Suns some games down the stretch this season with his play late in games.
This is more about the player that Leonard has turned into.
At only 23 years old, he’s probably the Spurs best player on a roster with three future hall of famers. When Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker all retire, the keys of the organization will be turned over to Leonard, if they haven’t done so already.
As for the Suns, they are currently looking for that franchise player. Heading into the season, the front office thought they had one in Eric Bledsoe, but he didn’t take that next step in developing his game.
Like they have done so in the past, they probably are going to have to find that player via a trade, in the draft or hope that Bledsoe or someone else currently on that roster turns into that kind of player.
If they would have just taken Leonard over Morris in that draft, that search for a franchise player would be over.