FWIW, Barnes has the same wingspan (and bad shooting stroke) as Kawhi did coming out of college.
I hear this argument but isn't it also true that there's a half dozen players in every draft who fit that description? And yet there's still only one Kawhi Leonard. Do they all need to go to the Gregg Popovich school of tough love to develop properly? Keon Johnson is also an excellent defender with a questionable jumper. Why is he ranked 15 spots lower here? Is it because he's smaller and doesn't do the Draymond scream whenever you make a good play thing? Almost all of these draft "experts" make me nauseous with their analysis. It tends to be in the same genre of hyperbolic group-think.
A bigger point that tends to get overlooked in the pre-draft period is that a lot of these guys are not going to meet expectations. If every player hit their hypothetical ceiling we'd have 20 All-Stars in every draft. In reality you're lucky to have 4 or 5 All-Stars in the same draft. Legit MVPs come along once every 5 years or so. That means there's a lot of players who will not overcome their weaknesses and will instead settle in as role-players, journeymen, or team leaders in some other international league.
It's not fun to pick on people and point out their flaws but of the 23 players listed there, half of them will probably be available for a minimum contract in 5 years. And considering our past history, the question at the forefront of my mind is how do we
not pick one of those players? For instance, my preference is always to find two-way players who can excel in different skill areas offensively and defensively but I've observed over the years how elite defenders I've fallen in love with end up on the end of the bench when the coach doesn't trust them on offense. Bricking open jumpers (or worse, refusing to take them) is a quick ticket out of a rotation for most players. So the clock is already ticking for some of these guys.