Reggie Miller: Popovich buys into Kobe Bryant-Kawhi Leonard comparison
Dan asked TNT’s Reggie Miller if he buys a comparison between Kobe Bryant and Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard. Here’s Reggie’s answer:
“We had our coaches meeting yesterday, Kevin Harlan and myself. And we asked Greg Popovich who does Kawhi Leonard remind him of. I was thinking maybe he was going to say Scottie Pippen, though Scottie wasn’t the scorer that Kawhi is now … but defensively they’re some what long and similar. He said Kobe as well. He says the way that if you watch the mannerism on their fade-always and the way they face up and offensively to ability to go get their own shots because Greg Popvich if you look over the past 15 years of the spurs dynasty, they’ve never had a player like Leonard where they would isolate. Everything has been ball movement if you look at their success. This year has been the only year they’ve gone to a 1-4 system in close games and given the ball to Kawhi and say go win the ball game for us. And he has that ability like Kobe Bryant to look over the defense one on one and make a move. So even Greg Popovich is comparing him to Kobe Bryant.”