The two-time and reigning Kia Defensive Player of the Year shoved his way into the mix here on the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder last season. And now, in his first season without Duncan in the mix, he’s taken on the added weight of being the Spurs’ true center of attention. In the eyes of many, he has become the best two-way talent in the NBA today.

Leonard is averaging career highs in minutes (33.2), points (24.0) and field goal attempts (16.6) while also shooting better than 40 percent from 3-point range for the second straight season. And he has no peer as a lock-down, individual defender.

Still, Popovich insists that things haven’t changed much for Leonard in Duncan’s absence, his responsibilities aren’t really any greater than they already were.

“It’s really the same for him,” Popovich said. “He has to score for us. He’s a great defender, he plays both ends of the floor, so none of that has really changed. He’s just more aggressive offensively and kind of added to his game every year. This year is more of an experience on the post. Starting to use him down there a little more, getting him used to seeing more double-teams. That’s probably new for him. I guess that’s the biggest difference in his game is the post play, everything else is pretty much the same. He has to be a two-way player and he does that pretty well.”

Arguably as well as any player in the game.

Now, to this week's rankings ...

1. James Harden, Houston Rockets

(Last week: No. 1)

The Rockets have won six in a row and 17 of their last 19 games behind the magical work Harden is putting in as the maestro of Mike D’Antoni’s system. He was spectacular in Thursday’s narrow escape over Russell Westbrook and the Thunder (33.2 points, 12.0 assists, 10.4 rebounds, 1.8 steals in his last five games).