Kawhi Leonard: How the money and the injury will determine his future

SACRAMENTO, CA - OCTOBER 27: Kawhi Leonard #2 of the San Antonio Spurs looks on from the bench against the Sacramento Kings during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game at Golden 1 Center on October 27, 2016 in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
SACRAMENTO, CA - OCTOBER 27: Kawhi Leonard #2 of the San Antonio Spurs looks on from the bench against the Sacramento Kings during the first quarter of an NBA basketball game at Golden 1 Center on October 27, 2016 in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /
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Man or Machine 

People joke that Kawhi is a robot. He’s not, but let’s pretend he has one robotic feature for a moment in order to make some inferences about this mystery. Let’s pretend he has some meters and gauges on him:

1) PRODUCTION-O-METER – This shows what percent of his best he is. A reading of 100 percent here means he’s the MVP and Defensive player of the year candidate he was a year ago. When it says “50” percent, it means he’s half that (think a serviceable 3nD wing or backup).

2) RISK-O-METER – This one is a percent of how likely he is to have a significant setback. A 100 percent here of course, means a guaranteed setback that would complicate his rehab, perhaps future, and certainly contract situation.

From the vantage point of us fans, we can see Coach Pop, General Manager R.C. Buford, plus a few players like Manu Ginóbili and Tony Parker, and even the robot himself all huddled around the meters trying to read them.

And here’s the really tricky part. Ever sit shotgun in a car and think the car may be speeding, or low on fuel and have a disagreement with the driver? This is called a parallax: “the effect, whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions.”

Our challenge here is to infer what the meters look like to everyone based on what we we’re reading.