It’s been six years since the San Antonio Spurs traded established point guard George Hill to the Indiana Pacers for San Diego State product Kawhi Leonard. In retrospect, this trade was a clear win for the Spurs. Hill is a very good player, but Leonard is one of the best five players in basketball right now. At the time, though, the Spurs weren’t confident about the move, head coach Gregg Popovich told Jonathan Abrams of Bleacher Report:
“The toughest in whatever, 20, whatever years I’ve been coaching here as a head coach. It’s not even close. We were scared to death sitting in the room. I think it was the 15th pick, if I remember, and when we got to 11, 12, 13. Danny Ferry, our CEO, and I were looking at each other saying, ‘Are we really going to do this?’
“[Hill] was one of my favorite players. He was important to us, but we needed to get bigger. … So in the end, we said we’re going to roll the bones and we’re going to do it, but I can’t tell that at that point we knew that Kawhi was going to be what he is today. That would be an exaggeration.”
Nobody could have predicted the heights that Leonard would reach as a pro. Coming out of college, he was a good defender with a limited offensive game.
Now, he’s considered one of the greatest defenders to ever play and is also a top-notch scorer. Leonard has become lethal from the midrange and is a career 38.6 percent shooter from three-point range. At San Diego State, Leonard shot just 25 percent from the closer college three-point line.
The Spurs may have been scared in 2011, but in 2017 you can bet they’re thankful that they took the risk.
