If not Leonard, who?

[Natebishop3]

So many people lament the fact that we chose Meyers Leonard with the 11th pick in the 2012 draft.

I'm just curious, who would you have taken instead? Let's assume you can't trade the pick and you have to choose someone. You be the GM, who would you have taken instead of Meyers?

http://nbadraft.net/nba_final_draft/2012

 

[KeepOnRollin]

Lamb is the person most have said in the past. He hasn't been incredible but he is also stuck behind some pretty good players. Henson has also been good in limited minutes if we had to pick a big.

I don't think Lamb would get much time on our team either but he would allow us to go Center this year (Steven Adams) instead of CJ. I fine with how things turned out though. I think McCollum is going to be a good player in this league.

 

[Natebishop3]

Lamb is the person most have said in the past. He hasn't been incredible but he is also stuck behind some pretty good players. Henson has also been good in limited minutes if we had to pick a big.

I don't think Lamb would get much time on our team either but he would allow us to go Center this year (Steven Adams) instead of CJ. I fine with how things turned out though. I think McCollum is going to be a good player in this league.

That's really the problem, there isn't a clear better choice than Leonard. The whole draft looks pretty crappy after Drummond was taken. Sullinger is probably the best choice, but I remember everyone was concerned about his health. I think it was his back.

 

[Haakzilla]

...trade!

 

[jlprk]

The real question is the reverse. Who in the 1st round wouldn't be contributing more to the Blazers right now than Leonard is?

 

[oldmangrouch]

John Henson. He is contributing more to the Bucks than Leonar_ and T-Rob combined are giving us.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Lamb and Henson were the guys I wanted

 

[Rastapopoulos]

John Henson (duh!)

 

[Natebishop3]

I wanted Lamb at the time... haven't been too impressed with him lately though.

 

[Sinobas]

Miles Plumlee looks quite a bit better right now, but he is 4 years older.

 

[STOMP]

the guy I was really intrigued by in this last draft was Steven Adams. Solid size for a 5/4, very athletic & a nose for D. Sort of like passing on top shelf PG prospects because they'd drafted Telfair the year prior, I wonder if having Meyers had anything to do with Olshey passing on the big Kiwi... 17 points 10 boards & 3 blocks on Friday

STOMP

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Someone who can be bothered to find it should bump the real-time draft thread from 2012 to see what we all thought of Leonard at the time and who we wanted.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

the guy I was really intrigued by in this last draft was Steven Adams. Solid size for a 5/4, very athletic & a nose for D. Sort of like passing on top shelf PG prospects because they'd drafted Telfair the year prior, I wonder if having Meyers had anything to do with Olshey passing on the big Kiwi... 17 points 10 boards & 3 blocks on Friday

I dunno. I'm pretty sure he was going to be our pick but CJ dropped and they felt they had to go with the higher rated prospect.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Someone who can be bothered to find it should bump the real-time draft thread from 2012 to see what we all thought of Leonard at the time and who we wanted.

You will see the Leonar_ sucks island sparsely inhabited with me and 1 or 2 others

 

[magnifier661]

So many people lament the fact that we chose Meyers Leonard with the 11th pick in the 2012 draft.

I'm just curious, who would you have taken instead? Let's assume you can't trade the pick and you have to choose someone. You be the GM, who would you have taken instead of Meyers?

http://nbadraft.net/nba_final_draft/2012

I was really hoping we could have used freeland and the pick for Drummond, who was picked only 3 earlier. The way freeland has been playing now, I'm actually fine with the Leonard pick. We have a good 2 more years to develop Leonard, now that we have a legit back up at center.

 

[MARIS61]

Amazing that Leonard was even available for us to draft by that point.

Biggest steal ever for the Blazers.

 

[Sinobas]

I wanted Leonard at the time of the draft, and had high hopes for him. I defended him last year, but he's slowly lost me. Now I see him as a guy who might have a future as a jump shooting PF.

 

[Draco]

I wanted Leonard at the time of the draft, and had high hopes for him. I defended him last year, but he's slowly lost me. Now I see him as a guy who might have a future as a jump shooting PF.

Yeah he can really shoot the ball. He will never be a defensive rebounding center but that doesn't mean he can't have some value as an offensive stretch 4 off the bench. Especially with LaMarcus' role in the offense, he could stand in a lot of the same outside spots. I'm not sure if TRob is the answer as a backup PF.

We need to put players in roles that best suit their current skills, not a role of what the team had hoped a player would become.

 

[Draco]

So many people lament the fact that we chose Meyers Leonard with the 11th pick in the 2012 draft.

I'm just curious, who would you have taken instead? Let's assume you can't trade the pick and you have to choose someone. You be the GM, who would you have taken instead of Meyers?

http://nbadraft.net/nba_final_draft/2012

If I could do the draft over instead of Meyers I'd easily take any of Lamb, Henson, Zeller, Jones, Sullinger, Wroten, Plumlee, Ezeli, Crowder.

 

[BigGameDamian]

I wonder what type of big man we could get for Claver & Freeland? I really like Freeland but sometimes you can't keep everyone you like if you want to better your team.

 

[tlongII]

Leonard will be fine. Patience.

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

I was really hoping we could have used freeland and the pick for Drummond, who was picked only 3 earlier. The way freeland has been playing now, I'm actually fine with the Leonard pick. We have a good 2 more years to develop Leonard, now that we have a legit back up at center.

Drummond was picked two spots earlier, FYI. I had wanted Drummond at #6, though I was always liked Lillard and was happy with him. I wanted to pick Drummond as soon as we made the trade with NJ. I was hoping Drummond at 6 and Lillard at 11, but Lillard continued to climb up draft boards.

 

[magnifier661]

Drummond was picked two spots earlier, FYI. I had wanted Drummond at #6, though I was always liked Lillard and was happy with him. I wanted to pick Drummond as soon as we made the trade with NJ. I was hoping Drummond at 6 and Lillard at 11, but Lillard continued to climb up draft boards.

So if we traded with the team before Detroit, we would have arguably 2 of the best 3 players in that draft.

 

[Boob-No-More]

I still don't get all the angst and remorse over our 21-year old 3rd string center. We have had TWO MORE threads on this topic pop up in that last 24 hours.

He was a project when picked. Everyone kthat. At the time of the draft, no one really expected anything out of him until his 3rd or 4th season in the league.

Now, here he is, 16 minutes of PT into his second season, and people are freaking out on a daily basis about his lack of progress. Shit, someone even started a thread a couple days ago saying we should waive him. Calm the fuck down people. Why all of a sudden do we need to cut/trade the guy 16 minutes into his second season when we all knew he was a 3 - 4 year project, and a high risk one at that? Is it because Lillard is so much better than expected and we all want to win now and aren't willing to be patient? Did the forum collectively forget that Leonard was a long term project and not someone who could immediately be expected to be part of the rotation at the beginning of his second season? Is it that the 26-year old Freeland, who looked just as lost as Leonard last season, has made much better progress than the 21-year old Leonard?

Or is it just the overriding mentality of this forum that no matter how good, or bad, the team is performing, we always need a scapegoat or whipping boy?

I personally think it's a bit of all of the above, but mostly the latter. It just seems like there are some posters here, some of them VERY prolific, that just aren't happy unless they have something to bitch about.

BNM

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Tell you what, if all the threads piss you off, go hang out in the Milwaukee Bucks forum. Blissfully peaceful.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Tell you what, if all the threads piss you off, go hang out in the Milwaukee Bucks forum. Blissfully peaceful.

Tell you what, stop making baseless assumptions and telling me what to do.

Did I say I was pissed off? No, because I'm not. Confused would be more accurate. I just don't get why there is so much hand ringing and teeth gnashing over our 3rd string center who was known to be a long term project when drafted. The team is 4-2 and Freeland has shown himself to be an adequate backup. Yet we had 2 threads yesterday about Leonard's lack of progress and one the day before actually suggesting we waive him. Just seems a bit excessive to me. Perhaps we could just have a single sticky thread on the topic rather than starting multiple new threads daily.

BNM

 

[HailBlazers]

What's funny to me is all the he's garbage lets waive / trade him talk is exactly what was being said about Freeland last year

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Someone who can be bothered to find it should bump the real-time draft thread from 2012 to see what we all thought of Leonard at the time and who we wanted.

Here you go, relive the exact moment we drafted Leonard.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

So if we traded with the team before Detroit, we would have arguably 2 of the best 3 players in that draft.

To quote the great Arvydas Sabonis: "If my grandmother had a beard she'd be my grandfather"
(I think that's the cleaned-up version.)

 

[BigGameDamian]

I still don't get all the angst and remorse over our 21-year old 3rd string center. We have had TWO MORE threads on this topic pop up in that last 24 hours.

He was a project when picked. Everyone kthat. At the time of the draft, no one really expected anything out of him until his 3rd or 4th season in the league.

Now, here he is, 16 minutes of PT into his second season, and people are freaking out on a daily basis about his lack of progress. Shit, someone even started a thread a couple days ago saying we should waive him. Calm the fuck down people. Why all of a sudden do we need to cut/trade the guy 16 minutes into his second season when we all knew he was a 3 - 4 year project, and a high risk one at that? Is it because Lillard is so much better than expected and we all want to win now and aren't willing to be patient? Did the forum collectively forget that Leonard was a long term project and not someone who could immediately be expected to be part of the rotation at the beginning of his second season? Is it that the 26-year old Freeland, who looked just as lost as Leonard last season, has made much better progress than the 21-year old Leonard?

Or is it just the overriding mentality of this forum that no matter how good, or bad, the team is performing, we always need a scapegoat or whipping boy?

I personally think it's a bit of all of the above, but mostly the latter. It just seems like there are some posters here, some of them VERY prolific, that just aren't happy unless they have something to bitch about.

BNM

The thing is, Leonard looked better last year. The kid just looks completely lost in every way. So it looks as if he taken two steps back. If he wasn't 7"1 250lbs I'm sure he''d be in the D League.