Whether it's right now or long term, Giannis should be the pick. The narrative of winning in sports is truly something amazing-it lead the public to view a player who posted a solid MVP caliber season in a better light than a player who posted an All-Time season by any standard except for winning a title, something that's influenced by a ton of variables out of a player's control no matter how good he is.
I don't think that's what's going on. We saw them go head to head. For 6 Games. Kawhi was better (and supposedly injured). It wasn't like the Warriors beating LeBron. Giannis was contained when it mattered. Kawhi was not.
You give me 2 identical teams. Put Giannis on one, Kawhi on the other, and have them face off in a playoff series. My money, this year, is on Kawhi's team.
The narrative that Kawhi was so much better than Giannis in that series just isn't borne out in reality. Giannis was awful scoring the ball in game 3 (though he did have 23 rebounds and 7 assists), but other than that Giannis scored at least 21 points in the other 5 games in the series. He had at least 4 assists in every game, blocked multiple shots in all but game 5 which was also the only game he didn't have at least 10 rebounds. Giannis out-rebounded, out-assisted, and out-blocked Leonard, while Leonard scored more and was the better steal generator. And let's be clear, Leonard scored more pretty much exclusively because he is a better foul shooter and was a significantly better foul shooter in that series. They shot almost identically from the field, but Leonard was 54-61 from the line while Giannis was an awful 35-60 (which was a good deal worse than the regular season).
Even on the court on the scoreboard they were nearly identical as Giannis was a + overall in the series (+10) and only had 2 - games in the series (-19 in game 4 and -2 in game 5). Leonard was only +13 in the series and like Giannis has 2 - games (the 2 losses at -4 and -19).
I think there are real arguments that Giannis was better than Leonard in the series. The Bucks were not better than the Raptors though, and that is really all that matters. The reason the Bucks lost was not Giannis it was Middleton, Brogdon, Bledsoe, Mirotic, and Ilyasova forgetting how to shoot the ball in games 3-6 of that series. If even just a couple of those players hit their normal percentages, the Bucks win that series and no one is having this discussion at all, because Giannis is just flat out better than Leonard. And I legitimately don't think it is all that close.
