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Man, Kawhi is just absurdly good. I haven't watched more than a game of the Spurs series. Obviously he's the best defender in the game. But offensively, is he taking advantage of matchups against the Clippers or is this production something that's typical?
A little of both. There are only 2-3 NBA players who can physically match up with him. He's much too strong for most small forwards and too fast for power forwards, and this year he has shown a shockingly smooth and varied offensive skill set to take advantage of that. Matt Barnes is the Clippers' stopper and he is neither big enough nor fast enough to bother Kawhi anywhere on the court.
Now, I don't think Kawhi is quite ready to be a true solo offensive juggernaut. If good defenses were able to truly focus on him they would really hurt his efficiency. I think he's about another year from entering the rarified air of guys who can go get 30 points any time they want.
His progression on offense has been astonishing. Going from 8 ppg to 12 to 13 to 16.5 doesn't even come close to telling the whole story. Five years ago the predraft writeup was that offensively, he did everything but none of it very well. His efficiency was among the worst of all draft prospects and most of his unremarkable scoring was due to raw physical ability and effort. Offensively, the story was that he would be an effective glue guy. I don't think anyone saw him being a player who could bully Chris Bosh in the post one possession and drop a J in Lebron's face on the next.