OG Anunoby, a 21-year-old in his second season with the Toronto Raptors at the time Kawhi Leonard was there, averaged just 20 minutes per game. A few years later, Anunoby leads the NBA in minutes played per game and is essential to the development of Toronto.

Kawhi Leonard of the LA Clippers was questioned about his former teammate Anunoby and his improvement after Tuesday night’s victory over the Raptors.

Just being able to launch and participate in games, Leonard remarked. “He worked on his game, stroke is looking a lot different, playing more consistently, and that’s the first thing you need from a player on your team; Just someone that wants to get better and puts in the work to match what they’re saying,” the coach said. “When I was here, he wasn’t in the rotation like that.”

Leonard gave Anunoby high marks for possessing the most desirable quality in a teammate, namely a strong work ethic and a willingness to improve constantly. Anunoby has made great progress over the past few seasons, and he is currently an NBA-best 18 PPG scorer who also averages 2.2 steals per game. Anunoby had put in a lot of effort to evolve into the player he is now, even if he wasn’t this mature when Leonard was a member of the Raptors.