I'm getting the feeling that Meyers Leonard will be treated like under the "McMillan" system and only get spare minutes in Blazer blow out games. I understand that both Leonard and Freeland are considered under Lopez as the starting center. But really, how is our #11 2012 draft pick going to get experienced? I am having the feeling that he will become unhappy and move after his third year in Portland. And he will probably get better statistics with another team after that. I want Meyers Leonard to be played more instead of another untested player on our bench.
Definitely put him in the D-League where he can get minutes. Hopefully after half a season there he'll have improved enough where we can play him in NBA games.
Has D-League started yet? And if so, why is Leonard not there? He really needs game experience, but not at the Blazers expense.
This is what happens when you are trying to win and you have an undeveloped big man. It's what happened with Jermaine, not that Freeland is Jermaine, but it's difficult to play big guys that constantly make mistakes.
Lopez & Freeland are not close to the level of Sabonis & Brian Grant. Meyers entered the NBA three years older than Jermaine. I'm more concerned about Victor Claviers lack of minutes. Leonard was a mistaken lottery pick with multiple blatant flaws in his game. Clavier has played great in the NBA he just struggled to make shots. Victor contributes many intangibles to help a team.
relative to each other (i.e., Lopez and Freeland to Meyers is similar to Sabonis and Grant to Jermaine), tho, I think the comparison is apt.
What's weird about O'Neal is that he only had 4 seasons with a PER above 20, and two of those were with 44 and 51 games. Perhaps one of the most overrated 'mistakes' in Blazer history. He just wasn't as good as the max money he was paid by Indiana. The contract he signed for the 2003-04 season was just mindboggling, considering it was a 6 year deal, and he sucked for most of it.
I still think the Blazers will need another big if they want to go far. Freeland and Lopez just isn't enough and Leonard just isn't good enough right now.
Who would you have taken instead of Leonard? Jared Sullinger is about the only guy who is producing. The rest are a list of garbage that will most likely be out of the league in a few years.
We are winning and Freeland is playing well. What's there to complain about? There will be (hopefully minor) injuries and Leonard will get his time.
At the time I wanted Jeremy Lamb. John Henson, Tony Wroten, Miles Plumlee, Festius Ezeli would be big upgrades. But I don't expect teams to bat 1000. Sometimes you get a great buy like Lillard who is way better than people thought and sometimes you get a player like Leonard who is way worse. Once you see a player for a few years you can make a far better judgement of their skillset, position, and future in the league. If Leonard was signed as a 15th roster spot free agent this offseason fans wouldn't have this desire to have him get minutes, the draft pick we used on him is a sunk cost so its time to move on. No player deserves minutes solely because of their acquistion cost; they deserve minutes based off their contributions to the team and their possible improvement in the future.
He needs to go to Boise. Freeland outplayed his minutes. Boise is where he needs to be. Period. As far as the players you would take, I would be for most of those, but it'd be interesting to see where Plumlee would fit in. It could have been possible that he'd be in the same boat given Freeland's play... and that'd be the same for any drafted C out of that class.
Meyers just tweeted this from the team plane: Meyers Leonard @MeyersLeonard11 Great...House keys, car keys, bags and all left in Sacramento..Must be a sick joke. Only it's real. Hmmm. Life goes on