Bowen did a great job against wings that weren't physically imposing and played iso offense. I don't recall him doing very well against bigger SF. That's why K Leonard is so awesome. He's every bit as good a wing defender, he's more physical, and he plays good help D. He's twice the defender Bowen was, IMO.
Interesting factoid, I believe Bowen said Ray Allen was his toughest mark.
What bigger wings do you remember Bowen not playing well against? Kawhi has 30 lbs on Bruce of course he is going to be more physical. It's apples to oranges really, they are different types of defenders. Bruce was the equivalent of a lockdown corner. Pops said basically, "you have this guy, we are not going to help on him...go"
And yes Ray is a mark.
He had a season where he did 22 and 12, shot like .590 TS% and had more steals (2.0) and blocks (1.7) than turnovers (1.5).
That may be one of the best 10 seasons of my lifetime.
I love me some Marion, but MJ and LBJ have 10 combined better seasons. If only because Marion was a bad passer. He only had 1.5 tpg but he also only had 1.8 apg.
The real question is, how did he ever make a jumpshot? Lol
He NEVER in a 17 year career averaged 3 apg, and for his career averaged 1.9 apg vs 1.6 topg. Any way you slice it, that's bad. And I say that as a Marion fan. Numbers never lie but your eyes do remember? He was solid in almost every aspect of the game, except passing and outside shooting.
I do find it amusing that passing wasn't in his "role" so low assits are ok. But Bruce was a terrible rebounder, even though his role wasn't to crash the boards, it was guard the best perimeter wing and shoot 3's. Not exactly conducive for getting rebounds.
Not sure what this means?
Does Kawhi Leonard not play the exact same position in the exact same system and get more than twice as many rebounds as Bowen? You don't need your PF to get assists. You need your SF to rebound.
BTW, the average PF gets 2.2 assists per 36, and Marion has averaged 2.0 per 36. The average PF has a 1:1 ratio, and Marion 1.2:1. Average SF does 2.7 assists per 36 and 1.3:1, so I would say all things considered he's pretty average for a F tweener.