By Kevin Ferrigan

Kawhi Leonard played the game of his life Tuesday night, pouring in 29 points on just 13 shots, grabbing four rebounds, and notching pairs of assists, steals and blocks, to boot. He was quite arguably the best player on the floor in an NBA Finals game that included LeBron James.

This is where I remind you that Kawhi Leonard is just 22 years old.

Doing the work and living with the result is the philosophy that underscores all of the Spurs’ success over the last two decades, and it’s a philosophy that seems hardwired into Leonard’s very being. He doesn’t talk much. He doesn’t smile all that often, either. He doesn’t get visibly upset when things go wrong. He just does the work. It’s no wonder that some have joked that Popovich used his CIA connections to create Kawhi in a lab.

In current form, Leonard is becoming a perfect complementary player. He’s one of the league’s premier wing defenders, a smart decision-maker with the ball, and a monster on the glass. Leonard’s also a highly efficient scorer (posting a True Shooting percentage of 60.2 percent this year vs. the league average of around 54 percent), even though he doesn’t score in a great deal of volume (Leonard only scored 15.8 points per 36 minutes this season).

It’s that lack of scoring volume that holds fans and many analysts from dubbing Leonard a star, but here’s the twist: Kawhi is getting better, every single year, at both scoring more efficiently while simultaneously handling a bigger portion of the Spurs’ offense.

This is pretty remarkable; it rarely happens. The heavier a workload you place on a player, the more difficult it typically is to score points efficiently. You see a usage versus efficiency tradeoff. Generally speaking, the more possessions a player uses, the more his efficiency drops off, and vice versa. Give an overused player a reduced role, and watch his efficiency soar (hi, Rudy Gay).

It would have been a big achievement for Leonard to sustain his current efficiency while carrying a bigger portion of the Spurs’ offense, or, conversely, to maintain his smaller portion of the offense while boosting his percentages. Instead, each year he’s been in the league, Kawhi has managed to up his true shooting percentage while simultaneously carrying a heavier offensive load than the previous year. Leonard’s still growing as a player and remains below-average in terms of possessions usage (just 18.3 percent of Spurs’ possessions when he was on the floor this season), but the year-over-year growth is tantalizing, especially given everything else he does.

Beyond the numbers, Leonard is growing as player, particularly as a scorer and playmaker in the half court. His ball-handling has improved significantly, increasing his confidence to make a play. Everyone went nuts for his dunk over Serge Ibaka to start off Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, but even more impressive was how he got there. Leonard took his dribble to the left against Kevin Durant before spinning back right, protected the ball from Russell Westbrook’s swiping hands, and THEN he exploded over Ibaka.

It’s the kind of play stars make.

Leonard had a similar play in Game 3 against the Heat, after he found himself with the ball at the top of the key and with nary an open man to hit with a pass. He quickly put the ball on the floor and drove into the heart of the Heat’s defense, blowing past Dwyane Wade before bulldozing directly into Chris Bosh’s chest. He got the foul and scored. It was such an impressive play for a player who came into the league getting almost all of his buckets off of transition opportunities, open corner threes and putback attempts following one of his beastly rebounds.

Leonard still has a lot of room to grow, but given his young age, the strides he’s already made, and the way he’s trending, there’s no way you should bet against him reaching the potential level: a star player, on both ends. The development process continues tonight. In Miami. Against LeBron.

@NBAcouchside is an NBA Writer for Hoop365, Hickory High, Crabdribbles, Vice Sports and Bulls by the Horns.