Spurs have finally found an heir to Manu Ginobili's famous throne

We have to give credit where it's due. Keldon Johnson has turned himself into one hell of a player, and the Spurs are better for making sure he developed on their roster. He currently has the fourth-lowest odds to win Sixth Man of the Year, according to FanDuel.

Johnson is averaging 14 points and 6 rebounds on 57% FG and 42% 3PT and just had another banger of a performance, this time against the Lakers last night. He posted 27 points and 6 rebounds and went 11/13 from the field. His efficiency continues to be outstanding this season.

San Antonio hasn't had a winner of the Sixth Man award since Manu Ginobili, one of the greatest sixth men of all time, and that got me to thinking about how KJ is more like the Argentinian Hall of Fame whirlwind than we realize.

Johnson is a talented NBA scorer and a starter on many teams

I was recently asked if I thought KJ was capable of leading his own team. I don't know about all of that, but that's not a slight. These are the elite of the elite athletes in the world, and only a small percentage of people on the planet get the privilege to play in the NBA. An even smaller group gets playing time, and there are only five starting positions on each team.

The Llama King would easily earn a starting spot on more than half the teams in the league and be a solid piece for them. There's nothing but respect in that assertion. We've seen him average 22 points for a season, and that was when he was still young, trying to figure out how to win at a professional level.

Now that he has more experience and has polished his game, I could easily see him putting up 20 a night on a good team with solid efficiency. Yet he leads from the bench in San Antonio with a smile on his face, and he's unbelievably good at it. Where have we seen that before?

Keldon's sacrifice is similar to Ginobili's

Like Ginobili, he's taken to the bench without complaint, smiling through it all, knowing the boost he can provide off the bench. Dylan Harper has gotten his share of Manu comparisons, too. Those are easy to see since he's also left-handed, and he's coming off the bench as a guard. I'm not averse to having two players embody one of the greatest players in the history of the league.

But Johnson hasn't been recognized for having the same level of selflessness as number 20 did. I'm doing that now. There are also more similarities between the two that we can now identify with this improved version of KJ. The first one is rarely, if ever, brought up, but both players have won Olympic gold medals. Johnson was on the 2020 team that won in Tokyo, coached by Gregg Popovich.

The way they get into the paint may be a little different—Manu with clever footwork and Keldon with brute force—but they're both fearless when they get there. Johnson will finish over the trees and throw down monstrous slams that bring the crowd to their feet. It's an adrenaline rush watching him body opponents, and the feeling is similar to what we felt when Ginobili brought the house down.

Clutch shots, timely three-pointers, and a burning fire to compete that manifest in thunderous roars after an explosive play are calling cards for both guys. It makes KJ a vicious threat off the bench, just as it did for Manu. If he can keep it up for the rest of the season, and the Spurs can figure out how to win games again, he has a real chance to bring the 6MOY trophy back to Alamo City.