Russell Westbrook has had an illustrious career in the NBA, but he’s still not been able to get a ring. Kawhi Leonard has had a great career as well, yet he’s never been able to capture an entire regular season and make it his own.
They are both missing integral pieces in their trophy cabinet, yet no one can argue that they aren’t two of the top players this league has seen in the last 25 years. Recently, CBS Sports came out with a ranked list of the best 25 players of this century. Kawhi Leonard was ranked 13th on the list, and Russell Westbrook came in at 25.
Their list ranks the Top 25 players of this century in the following order:
1. LeBron James
2. Stephen Curry
3. Tim Duncan
4. Nikola Jokic
5. Shaquille O'Neal
6. Kobe Bryant
7. Giannis Antetokounmpo
8. Kevin Durant
9. Kevin Garnett
10. Dirk Nowitzki
11. Dwayne Wade
12. Chris Paul
13. Kawhi Leonard
14. Steve Nash
15. James Harden
16. Luka Doncic
17. Jason Kidd
18. Dwight Howard
19. Anthony Davis
20. Allen Iverson
21. Tracy McGrady
22. Damian Lillard
23. Jayson Tatum
24. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
25. Russell Westbrook
Former NBA point guard Jeff Teague disagreed with this sentiment as he argued Leonard has never won the league MVP, which implies he has never been the best player for an entire season.
“Kawhi Leonard is not better than Russell Westbrook. He did not have a better career than Russell Westbrook. He won championships, but this is an individual award, right? Give me Russell Westbrook… You don’t have a league MVP. You were never the best player in the NBA,” Teague opined on the Club 520 podcast.
For Teague, it is not ideal to keep Leonard above Westbrook on this particular list, as he’s better than Westbrook only in terms of team achievements. Individually, Westbrook has accumulated some insane accolades.
In 2017, Westbrook took over the league by averaging a triple-double, posting 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 10.4 assists across the season, becoming only the second person to achieve this after Oscar Robertson. Westbrook was known for playing hard in the regular season and carrying his team to the playoffs. He was unable to translate regular-season success to the postseason, but he gave it his all during his prime.
Leonard has had rocky regular seasons. His best season was with the LA Clippers in 2019-20, where he averaged 27.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 4.9 assists. Leonard has never played all 82 games in a season because, for the better part of his career, he’s been riddled with injuries. Thus, he ‘load-managed’ in the regular season, which meant he had a lot of juice left for the post-season runs.
Kawhi Leonard has won two championships in his career, once with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014 and the other by leading the Toronto Raptors to their first-ever championship in franchise history in 2019. He won the Finals MVP for both these performances.
Leonard also had the advantage of having an elite team when he went to the Raptors. Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet were not household names yet, but a very solid support system that helped Leonard lead the team from the front with ease.
Westbrook did not particularly have such a support system around him, except when he played with Kevin Durant and James Harden for the Oklahoma City Thunder. But even then, one could argue that they were all very young to beat LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals.
Leonard had the advantage of having won the championship with the experienced Spurs team, and then took his talents to the Raptors to replicate that success.
Kawhi Leonard has also been the defensive player of the year twice, while Westbrook has won the scoring title twice in his career. Both these star athletes have quite the opposite statistics in their storied careers.
What Leonard has lacked, Westbrook has gained. While Leonard has the edge over Westbrook in terms of All-Defensive Teams made, he lags behind Westbrook when it comes to All-Star selections. Westbrook has nine All-Star selections to Leonard’s six.
In terms of total win shares, Leonard has shown an incredible ability to contribute on both sides of the ball. Accumulating 102.74 total win shares in his career, Leonard has positively impacted all teams he’s been on, especially during his peak.
But still, his total win shares are no match for Westbrook, who has accumulated 112.50 win shares in his career. Westbrook scores, rebounds, assists, steals, and influences the game in a plethora of ways that show up on the stat sheet.
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