Kawhi Leonard learning to beat double teams from Charles Barkley

Jeff Zillgitt | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Kawhi Leonard gets offensive tips from Charles Barkley Charles Barkley dishes some offense tips to Kawhi Leonard

In an effort to help Kawhi Leonard become better as teams focus their defensive efforts against him, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gave his star forward a CD with clips of Hall of Famer Charles Barkley handling and beating double teams.

“At this point, he’s just trying to figure out what to do when people come after him,” Popovich said. “He’s getting double teamed now, and that’s a whole different basketball game.”

Some of the best offensive players in double teams would “get you in a situation where they knew where they were going to go with the pass. Right now, he’s dealing with that,” Popovich explained. “Do I try to score? When am I in a crowd? When am I not in a crowd? When do I let it go? All those decisions. That’s really the part of his game he’s working on the most.”

The metamorphosis from talented NBA player to All-Star and All-NBA performer continually evolves, and Leonard, 24, is heading in the right direction.

“It’s my first time going through it,” Leonard said of the regular double teams. “It’s fun. You just go out there and try to compete and try to make a play for your teammates.”

He is averaging a team-high 22.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, two steals, 1.4 blocks and shooting 52.8% from the field and 37.5% on three-pointers. He is also mastering the mid-range game, shooting 60% on shots from 8-16 feet.

“I always wanted to be a great player coming into the NBA,” Leonard said. “First coming in, I wanted to be on a team that was a winning team and help me learn how to win in this league. I gradually wanted to become a go-to guy. It’s all played out and worked out well for me.”

When told Popovich put together a CD of his decision-making, Barkley was honored. “For Gregg Popovich to give a tape of me to Kawhi Leonard, that’s just awesome. It really is,” Barkley said. “I really appreciate that compliment.”

Not only does Barkley offer a visual education in beating double teams, he gave a spoken lesson. Barkley had to learn to beat double teams early in his career with the Philadelphia 76ers.

“The way you handle double teams is you can’t fight them,” Barkley said. “That’s part of making your team better because it comes down to simple common sense. Do I try to score on two guys or do I pass the ball to an open teammate? There are guys who try to fight the double team and only two things can happen and they’re both bad. You can either take a bad shot and miss or you can turn the ball over.”

Barkley offered more tips:

• Don’t pass the ball before the double team arrives.

• Don’t give up the dribble until you know where to pass the ball.

• Know from where the double team is coming.

“You have to have confidence in yourself that you’re going to make the right pass,” Barkley said.

Leonard is working on reading the defense, finding his shots within the offense and handling those double teams. His offense is improving as he tries to maintain the same defensive presence that made him the 2014-15 defensive player of the year.

“His goal will be to sustain it and not to just morph into an offensive player and forget that he’s a defender. That’s what we want him to do first of all more than anything. Defend and rebound,” Popovich said. “So far, he keeps that as his priority. That fuels his offense a little bit.”

The Spurs are the second-best defensive team, allowing 92.9 points per 100 possessions, and they are better defensively with Leonard on the floor. Leonard embraces the opportunity and has flourished.

Earlier this season, he held New York forward Carmelo Anthony to 3-for-12 shooting and blocked his shot three times. He forced Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant into 4-for-14 shooting, constantly fighting through screens, poking at the ball and putting his hand in Durant’s face.

“It’s about how good of a player you want to be. He has the ability to do what a Michael Jordan did at both ends, and I don’t mean he’s Michael Jordan,” Popovich said. “But you think about the best players in the league, they’re not two-way players. He wants to do that.”

Leonard, still reserved with reporters but opening up to his teammates according to Popovich, explained his desire to be a great two-way player.

“Just the will to win. Working out in the summer and getting in shape and getting my mind mentally prepared to do these things,” he said. “That’s basically it.”

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