Meyers Leonard is the MS-DOS of the NBA.
I'm not sure how many of you geek boys are old enough to remember MS-DOS, for those that aren't, MS-DOS was a single tasking operating system. What that meant was you could only have one application open on your computer at a time. If your were editing a document in WordPerfect and wanted to look up some data in your Lotus 123 spreadsheet, you had to save your work, close Wordperfect, open Lotus 123, look up your data, close Lotus 123, re-open Wordperfect and continue editing your document. There was no point and clicking, there was no drag and dropping. There wasn't even anything to click with (i.e. - no mouse). You could only do one thing at a time.
And, that's exactly Meyers Leonard's problem. He has multiple skills, but he just can't seem to put it all together. I once referred to him as too coachable, because he seems to focus on the latest thing his coach told him to do at the total exclusion of all other basketball related activities. He's a single tasking operator in a multitasking world.
In spite of playing limited minutes his rookie year, he had 53 dunks and blocked 38 shots as a 20-year old rookie. He hasn't come close to either total since. His second year at Illinois, he led the Big 10 in blocked shots. The Big 10 is a major college conference. Leading the Big 10 in blocked shots is not an insignificant accomplishment. Guys who lead the Big 10 in blocked hots rarely suck. But, after his rookie year, he completely stopped using his athleticism.
During his second season, he greatly improved his rebounding. While others here failed to notice the improvement (because he was dunking less and blocking fewer shots), I noted at the time the big leap in his TRB%. And, let's face it, rebounding is a VERY important skill in a big man. His 16.8 % TRB% his second season is not elite, but it is above average for an NBA center. But, like his dunking and shot blocking, his rebounding has declined since that second year peak.
So, rookie year - dunking, blocking shots, running the floor and using his athleticism.
2nd season - boxing out and rebounding.
3rd season, he added the 3-point shot and had a rare 50/40/90 season. He also had a great series against MEM where he posted a PER = 19.6 and shot .769 3FG%.
At this point in his career, he had demonstrated all the skills necessary to be a great NBA big man - just never more than one skill at a time. I really thought he was poised for a breakout year prior to his 4th season. I thought that would be the year he started putting it all together.
I was wrong. After that 50/40/90 season and that series against MEM, he was recast as a 7'1" stretch-4. He completely abandoned all other areas of the game to do nothing but stand at the 3-point line and wait for a WIDE OPEN shot. He completely forgot he can post up smaller players and actually dunk the basketball. His rebounding continued to decline at both ends of the court.
Sure, he occasionally has a solid game banging in the low post against a Boogie Cousins or a Marc Gasol, but those games are few and very, very far between.
He's even worse than a single tasking operating system. In his case, you don't need to just exit one application to start another, it's like you have a reboot the whole goddamn system every time you want to do something else.
At this point, I've given up on him ever putting it all together. He has all the skills and the size and athleticism to be an excellent NBA big man. He seems to lack the mindset to put those skills together. Maybe some day, it will all come together, but if it does, I think it will be much later in his career, when he no longer possesses his current athleticism. I think the best case is his mind will eventually catch up with his body, but only because his body is declining at the same rate his mind is improving.
BNM
