Kawhi Leonard has improved dramatically as a shooter

Watching Kawhi Leonard develop as a player has been absolutely remarkable.

More from Opinion

Once thought of as a niche player who could eventually become an important rotation guy for a successful team, Leonard is now widely acknowledged as being one of the elite overall players in the NBA.

Leonard was originally projected to be a late lottery pick, but ended up barely slipping out of lottery range to the Spurs at number 15 in the 2011 NBA draft.

The buzz about him coming out of San Diego State was that he was raw offensively, but could immediately contribute on defense to an NBA team.

Leonard was somewhat of a late bloomer as a national prospect. He was named Mr. Basketball in California,…