Milwaukee Bucks: Ranking NBA’s dominant duos in 2019-20 season
By Ryan Dean
3rd Place: Kawhi Leonard and Paul George
Our next duo comes to us from the city of Los Angeles, and it’s another new duo that came together this off-season, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Leonard and George have not played every game together for the Clippers this season, as George was sidelined with an injury at the beginning of the season and Leonard has been working with load management throughout the season.
Although there have been a number of injuries, Leonard and George have to be considered a dominant duo. Kawhi is coming off of a championship season and was named Finals MVP. Fans across the NBA were curious to see where Leonard would end up after last season, seeing as he was set to become a free agent. He decided to sign with the LA Clippers and was able to recruit George to the City of Angels too.
Through 52 games this season Leonard has played in 40 while George has played in just 31. Even with the injuries, I would be hard-pressed to keep Leonard and George off this list. This season, Kawhi is averaging 27.1 points per game, a point higher than last season. That may not seem like much compared to some of the league’s most elite scorers, but he is one of four players on the team averaging over 18 points per game.
Those points alone give the Clippers an average of about 80 points from four players. Another one of those four players is very clearly the team’s other star, Paul George. In his 31 appearances, he is averaging 22.3 points per game and shooting one of the highest effective field goal percentages of his career.
Overall, Leonard and George are a fun duo to watch and you can expect big numbers on any given night. The Clippers currently find themselves in third place in the West, and are poised to make a deep playoff run.
Kawhi Leonard will make his second appearance in the All-Star game playing for Team LeBron, while Paul George will miss out, likely due to the amount of games he’s missed through injury.