I've been thinking a bit lately about how much of a flop Meyers has been, and how baffling that is. The stuff in his favor is pretty substantial, he is legit 7' tall and very athletic for a big, likely top 10 in athleticism for a center in the NBA. And he can shoot. His unrushed shots are money from around the basket all the way out past 15'. and his free throws are pretty decent too, for a center. And he has decent hands, good lateral movement, and a decent wingspan. You add up all those positives, and we should have a solid back up, if not a starter, but alas, we have a bonehead instead. He has the physical tools, but not the mental ones. He gets confused at game speed, loses his man halfway down the court, gets suckered into every fake, gets lost on switches and rotates the wrong way almost every time. If he can figure it out, he will be an excellent addition to the team, but he needs a shrink, or one on one guidance to help him overcome what I can only imagine is lukewarm brainpower. He has the same basic issue that Outlaw had, massive confusion. Outlaw never turned into the cool headed player that Roy or Lillard has, but he did finally find his role and figured out how to play game speed. Year 3 for Meyers, can he figure it out?
What makes it worse is that Thomas Robinson has similar problems (although he, at least, rebounds and plays hard all the time, and nobody would call him soft) so you can't risk playing them together much.
Anyone have any gauge of how Leonard is viewed around the league? Any team want to take a gamble that he really is the next Jermaine O'Neal?
Isn't it more of a bus, not a ship. I'd love for him to improve so I can stop hearing about how much people hate him.
Who's are big man coach? Do we even have someone on staff to teach these things to Leonard? I'm reading about all these camps the Blazers have been going to to improve their game. Has Meyer's went anywhere? I'd think the Pete Newell big man camp would be a requirement for him during the off season.
See Joel Przybilla, Tiago Splitter, Marcin Gortat, Omar Asik . . . . Almost every white center in the league has taken 3-5 years just to START getting productive. Most of those players were traded away by their original teams because they got tired of waiting. Meyers was a 4-5 year project with limited basketball experience. We are starting year 3. Why is everyone surprised at this point. By the time we are done with Kaman, Meyers should start producing more. Even RoLo wasn't producing meaningful numbers until he hit 24. Meyers is 22.
Pete Newell is dead and his son and Kermit Washington shut down the camp a few years back. Meyers does go to Bill Bayno's camp which is an excellent camp.
Kaman and Lopez couldn't be more perfect for Meyers to play against and learn from. "Meyers, see what they're doing? DO THAT!"
God, but its just so damn maddening when he does play. Even my g/f (who really doesn't understand much about Basketball) notices how terribly he does. I want him to succeed, but cringe every time he plays... Lol.
He's headed in the right direction, it'll just take time. Seeing him play, it seems to me that he enter the NBA with the understanding of an immature 7th grader. He did things you just don't do on a basketball court. If with all of the individual training he gets he learns at a rate about 3 times faster than most kids, he should have a freshman in college understanding about now. So, think of him as a preps to pros guy this year, and I think that'll be about right expectations-wise.
He's maybe the worst defender I've ever seen. If Harden's defense was as bad as Leonard's he wouldn't get a contract. Him being young is his only excuse.
It is either that or play him. I'd almost prefer watching him play, maybe the bulb will come on. My girlfriend went to beauty school and just couldn't cut hair for shit. One day it just clicked, don't know why but she became awesome and is now a general manager for a franchisee.
