Meyers Leonard dropped out of the rotation

[ThugginPaulyGAllen]

I think fans mistake his slow reactions for "brain-farts" or lack of effort. He's a 7-1 player that takes time to change direction and get up to speed. He just doesn't have the athletic ability, that rapid momentary quickness to stay in front of defensive assignments. Noah Vonleh far surpassed him the first day he was on the court; while Meyers has been trying and working on it for 4 years. Its a natural physical ability Vonleh was blessed with.

Fans shouldn't wish ill will toward Meyers for lacking a physical ability. I'm sure he'd love to be able to instinctively shut guys down on defense. That's just very rare for such a tall player to possess. We're watching him battle against the best 200 basketball players on the planet.

Yet he is the one who is adamant he is not a center, so, isn't this kind of on him as well? Don't have the lateral ability to guard pfs, so he needs to guard centers and he hates it because he is soft. Can't be soft going against the best players especially if you're number 250 on that list of 200. Then we haven't even mentioned if he at least developed a post game in the last 4 years this wouldn't even be a conversation. All he wants to do is shoot 3s and floaters. Meyers should be an oop magnet. No wishing ill on him, but man he is NOT good in the way he envisions himself playing. Embrace your size, work on rebounding, post position, FOOTWORK, get a couple post moves and use the 3pt shot as a aid to those skills, not as your only skill. He will never have the foot speed to be a 4, so he should stop working on that and start working towards the position he could excel at - center.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Can't put a massive defensive liability out there against Draymond. Green would have destroyed Leonard. I'm okay with Stotts benching him tonight. It's not as if Stotts is valuing winning over development as Quick suggested earlier when you consider that the guys who took Meyers' minutes are younger than him!

Yeah it's possible to value youth AND winning!

 

[Chris Craig]

Stotts coached a perfect game rotation wise . Meyers didn't play because of Green...Aminu had Green's number

So did Vonleh

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

He could walk for nothing.

If Neil has a weakness it's his unwillingness to take risks.

He played poker with LMA and lost - losing a franchise guy in his prime for nothing.

Leonard is nowhere near that level but you could've got an asset or two for him at this deadline.

Funny how you say Neil is afraid to take risks, and in the following sentence mention a huge risk he took with LA.

Not.

Swayed.

 

[BonesJones]

Yet he is the one who is adamant he is not a center, so, isn't this kind of on him as well? Don't have the lateral ability to guard pfs, so he needs to guard centers and he hates it because he is soft. Can't be soft going against the best players especially if you're number 250 on that list of 200.

He's not soft at all if anything he's tough. Just because his best skill is shooting 3s doesn't make him soft. And please, provide a quote where he is being adament that he's not a center

 

[Scalma]

I think he mentioned he wasn't a back to the basket type of player offensively. Don't remember him ever saying he wasn't a center though.

 

[jlprk]

I think fans mistake his slow reactions for "brain-farts" or lack of effort. He's a 7-1 player that takes time to change direction and get up to speed. He just doesn't have the athletic ability, that rapid momentary quickness to stay in front of defensive assignments.

His problem is 2/3 physical and 1/3 mental.

I've said that since that since the summer after his rookie year. What you see is what you get. Forget the Golden Future and letting it bake. As was posted here years ago,

"Leonard plays like a giraffe whose paws have been chopped off and exported to China."

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Didn't know the right thread for this, but this one seemed appropriate:

 

[theprunetang]

Didn't know the right thread for this, but this one seemed appropriate:

I think this is quite an appropriate thread. The timing of the defensive improvement coincides with Leonard being essentially replaced at the 4 by vonleh, Harkless, and Aminu. Leonard is now defending more centers as well which he is actually pretty good at. I suppose the long home stand where the team got to practice defense helped a ton too. Regardless, it has been really fun to watch the defense grow lately. I love it.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Teams usually copy the style of play of the champion. It usually doesn't work because it's really the players who make the difference, but GM's copy regardless. The game was changing anyways, but with GS proving you could win a championship by being a "jump shooting" team (Sorry Chuck) and essentially using a 6'7" players as your big for much of the game, the end result is....... even more small ball.

So guys like LMA and Leonard need to come to realization that they are centers (at least on defense) because they just can't cover out on the perimeter. Guys like Aminu can now easily play PF and guys like CJ can easily play SG. There will always be exceptions, but for most matchups...this is how it is now.

 

[Blazinaway]

Teams usually copy the style of play of the champion. It usually doesn't work because it's really the players who make the difference, but GM's copy regardless. The game was changing anyways, but with GS proving you could win a championship by being a "jump shooting" team (Sorry Chuck) and essentially using a 6'7" players as your big for much of the game, the end result is....... even more small ball.

So guys like LMA and Leonard need to come to realization that they are centers (at least on defense) because they just can't cover out on the perimeter. Guys like Aminu can now easily play PF and guys like CJ can easily play SG. There will always be exceptions, but for most matchups...this is how it now is.

good points, and it is very important to have guys like Aminu/Hark/Vonleh who are tall enough, talented enough, and quick enough to guard 2-3 positions

 

[Draco]

Teams usually copy the style of play of the champion. It usually doesn't work because it's really the players who make the difference, but GM's copy regardless. The game was changing anyways, but with GS proving you could win a championship by being a "jump shooting" team (Sorry Chuck) and essentially using a 6'7" players as your big for much of the game, the end result is....... even more small ball.

So guys like LMA and Leonard need to come to realization that they are centers (at least on defense) because they just can't cover out on the perimeter. Guys like Aminu can now easily play PF and guys like CJ can easily play SG. There will always be exceptions, but for most matchups...this is how it now is.

Yeah we've seen some of this the last few years; but Draymond playing PF/C seems to really changed the outlook in the league. Now it's rare to have two big post players on the floor and rosters are filled with excess bigs. Used to be stiffs with no skills got $50million. Glad to see these changes. It certainly makes for interesting shift for the players you mention.

 

[theprunetang]

Yeah we've seen some of this the last few years; but Draymond playing PF/C seems to really changed the outlook in the league. Now it's rare to have two big post players on the floor and rosters are filled with excess bigs. Used to be stiffs with no skills got $50million. Glad to see these changes. It certainly makes for interesting shift for the players you mention.

Now it is "3 and D" wings with minimum skill getting the 50 million.

 

[Draco]

good points, and it is very important to have guys like Aminu/Hark/Vonleh who are tall enough, talented enough, and quick enough to guard 2-3 positions

Our roster seems to work real well with small ball. Plumlee or Davis are quick enough to guard the slowest opponent. Vonleh is quick on defense as well. If we get two of those on the court with our wings we can pound the boards against any small ball opponent. Our guards give us plenty of scoring.

 

[Draco]

Meyers was awful in the first half tonight. Is he the worst defender on the team?

 

[dviss1]

It will be interesting to see what Beibs brings in the free agent market. He's restricted so we can match but there are no shortage of teams that we have done that too. Maybe an ex-Blazer GM or two wanting a little payback?

Meyers being off the team is a net positive IMO.

My prediction though:

No GM offer more than 7 per and we'll retain him for cheap.

 

[dviss1]

Yet he is the one who is adamant he is not a center, so, isn't this kind of on him as well? Don't have the lateral ability to guard pfs, so he needs to guard centers and he hates it because he is soft. Can't be soft going against the best players especially if you're number 250 on that list of 200. Then we haven't even mentioned if he at least developed a post game in the last 4 years this wouldn't even be a conversation. All he wants to do is shoot 3s and floaters. Meyers should be an oop magnet. No wishing ill on him, but man he is NOT good in the way he envisions himself playing. Embrace your size, work on rebounding, post position, FOOTWORK, get a couple post moves and use the 3pt shot as a aid to those skills, not as your only skill. He will never have the foot speed to be a 4, so he should stop working on that and start working towards the position he could excel at - center.

Quoted and bolded cause it's the Muthafuckin' TRUTH!

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

I'm happy to see him playing less! We are better with him on the bench.

 

[BlayZa]

I'm happy to see him playing less! We are better with him on the bench.

or in the locker room

or on the plane.

Thuggin nailed it tho in his post.

 

[theprunetang]

or in the locker room

or on the plane.

Thuggin nailed it tho in his post.

By the way, thanks for those "signature updates". I have never properly thanked you for that.

 

[Draco]

Quoted and bolded cause it's the Muthafuckin' TRUTH!

Yeah; Meyers is our 3rd string center. Sometimes we've just played him at other spots. If Ed or Plumlee are out a game I'll be interested to see what Meyers does. But if everyone is healthy he belongs with Robert wearing warmups the whole game.

 

[Draco]

Meyers truly thought he was the 3rd option, core piece of the team going into the season...then something happened...

What happened is his high hopes and optimistic expectations for himself didn't come true. Just because he thought he could be the 3rd option doesn't mean it would or should happen. He's being handily outplayed and the team is better with him on the bench.

 

[Natebishop3]

I still think he's going to coast into a big contract.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I still think he's going to coast into a big contract.

The huge salary cap bump this summer and next is going to produce some of the silliest contracts we've seen in twenty years.

Meyers will get paid by somebody because some GM is going to convince themselves that you can't teach 7'1" and 3 point range. Hell, even as I type that it seems pretty tempting, but there's something missing when he's out on the court. It's almost like he's imitating what a basketball player should be doing without actually doing it; like a stage actor fencing in a Shakespearean play -- all sizzle no steak.

 

[Max Power]

...but there's something missing when he's out on the court. It's almost like he's imitating what a basketball player should be doing without actually doing it...

Agreed. It's like they're playing 4 on 5 when he's on the floor.

 

[Draco]

Meyer's shooting isn't as helpful as you'd expect because he takes so few shots. Maybe its because of his slow release? Taking so few shots is why he has such a small 17.7% usage rate and a PER of 11.2; terrible stats for an offensive option. Lowest PER on the team besides the 20 year old Vonleh. Even last year when Meyers was on fire shooting 42% 3PT he had a PER under the NBA average of 15 because of his low 15.8% usage rate.

Defensively he's a disaster against any player that isn't a center. Utah was attacking him relentlessly tonight; scoring or drawing fouls at will. Sometimes he is surprisingly good at defending centers. But if he plays center he's going to be switched or need to help out with other positions. His reactions are slow and he often takes bad fouls. Combine all of that and its a Matt Bonner limited minute backup career ahead of him. He belongs on an NBA roster but he's not a core long term piece for any team.

NBA teams are actually managed much better than 5 or 10 years ago. Look at how smart teams were about acquiring Dwight Howard. I don't think the market for Meyers will be near as expensive as some suggest. Any scout who closely follows games will see Meyers flaws. I remember hearing many of the same arguments JJ Hicksons last year here; and he was putting up 12ppg 10rpg 56% FG while a key starter. He ended up getting $5 million per year; below the MLE.

 

[BlayZa]

By the way, thanks for those "signature updates". I have never properly thanked you for that.

no probs man, gotta keep people hooked up glad to hear you enjoy the goodies

 

[ripcityboy]

I'm like at this point.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I'm like at this point.

What is it you "dunno?"

 

[ripcityboy]

Should we keep him or let him go.... I'm up in the air about it.