Milwaukee Bucks Game Preview: Jan. 10 at San Antonio Spurs

Player To Watch: Kawhi Leonard

You can tell a player is a pretty damn good defender when the best way to score on him is to stop trying. As detailed in the Matt Moore piece linked on the last slide, more than one team has sat the player Kawhi is supposed to be defending in the corner and played four-on-four, ignoring Leonard entirely.

That’s something the Bucks could certainly try, but even if it works Kawhi is still the player to watch. Besides the fact that he’s so good defensively that teams are okay with essentially not trying to score on him, Kawhi has been elite offensively this season as well.

Kawhi is averaging 23.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.9 steals and 0.7 blocks per game this season, while shooting 46.8 percent from the field and 40.3 percent from three-point territory. Despite all the hoo-hah about him not being a true star, there’s no doubt Kawhi is the best player on the second-best team in the West.

He’ll be tough to stop on offense, but the interesting thing will be what he does defensively to the Bucks, and how Milwaukee responds. Will Kawhi lock down Giannis and/or Jabari, or will the Bucks try to avoid him entirely? There could be a chess match happening on that end of the floor on Tuesday night.