The San Antonio Spurs used Richard Jefferson and Kobe Bryant for models to develop the shooting form of Kawhi Leonard.

“Whether a billion hours, a million hours or a thousand hours, everyone has worked on their shot, and every shot’s personal, and not everybody’s willing to change. I didn't have time to spend and get to know him and get personal with his shot.

“I used Richard [Jefferson] as a model and also used Kobe Bryant, because Kobe Bryant has really good shooting form. I didn’t know if Kawhi was a Laker fan or not or a Kobe fan, but you had to respect his work and his shooting. So, we used pictures and video of them. I showed him his pictures of where his was, similar to where Richard was. Kawhi’s smart, and he goes, ‘Let's go to work, let's do it.’”

Gregg Popovich believes Leonard arrived to the Spurs as a better shooter than people realized.

“We saw the work ethic first and then we saw when we put him out on the court, his shot was not broken at all," said Popovich. "It was just the fact he never did it much. So it was like a secret that was hidden, and all of a sudden he’s a pretty good shooter."

“To the outer world, it appears that he has suddenly emerged as an All-Star or an MVP candidate. It seems like he has suddenly showed up and all of a sudden, ‘Wow. This guy’s really good.’," said Chad Forcier.

“I don’t see it that way, and what the outer world can’t see is truly like how much time and actually how slow the process was in terms of the work and the sweat and the commitment and the desire and the day-in-and-day-out process or multiple seasons before we really got to see him grow in terms of the opportunity that Pop began to start to give him.”