The problem is you only equate leading to scoring, and if that's the case Santi only "led" the team last year and truthfully that was more about the injury issues with the rest of the team. JJJ missed 12 games, ZZ missed the last 6, Key missed 3, Phillips missed 4. ON is the only guy besides Mashack that played in all 36 games even. But it was also a very different team built on defense first and scoring second. We averaged just 70.8 ppg, but held teams to 57.9.
Year 1 he was the 4th option
Year 2 he was the 5th option
Year 3 he was the 2nd option
Year 4 he was the 1st option
Year 5 he's the 5th option
But this season Santi has drawn the assignment of defending the other team's best offensive wing player almost always. Part of that is that he's just that good, but part of that is also that DK isn't as good on ball and we need to conserve his legs for offense. Last year we often played 2 bigs and ON and Phillips were very good at defending anyone they faced. So Santi didn't have to go face up with the other team's best offensive player nearly as much.
Santi is the definition of a leader, anyone that doesn't see that is either a troll or only cares about scoring. He came in with a one dimensional game, shooting from deep and has developed into a jack of all trades. He can defend at the highest level on ball, he has no issue with physical play, he rebounds, he can distribute and he can run the point when needed. He's improved his 2 PT% every season he's been here and he has clocked a ton of minutes. There has IMO never been another player that can say they have given their all more for Tennessee than Santi.
4417 minutes played (2nd all time)
148 games (2nd all time)
1540 points
325 3-point field goals (3rd all time)
595 rebounds (508 defensive rebounds, 4th all time)
451 assists (8th all time)
211 steals (tied for 1st all time)
16 blocks
Santi is a role player and when his role has required him to be more of an offense first guy he's done that, when he's needed to focus on distributing the ball he's done that, and when he's needed to step up his defense and be a "shut down corner" for us he's done that.
No better leader in a locker room than a guy who says "I just want to win" and then shows you every single day what he's willing to do to make that happen.
