Game Thread GAME# 35: LAKERS @ BLAZERS - JANUARY 5, 2015 - MONDAY, 7:00 PM (PST), KGW

Unlike the old forum software, on the new you don't see any quoted material from an ignored poster or even evidence that they posted at all.

 

Man that hit TRob put on Price needed 11 stitches. Major bummer. It was brave of Price to try to take the charge. Sometimes there's a thin line between brave and stupid.

 

Me too; he can do as much for us as Spencer does now with some more coaching.

 

Leonard has 2 blocks in 15 games this year.

He had 5 in 40 games last year.

smh watching him swipe at guys is frustrating as hell

 

That was tough last night - on his first two fouls, Meyers did a very nice job of moving his feet and jumping up vertically to avoid a foul - only to be unable to resist swiping down at the ball. Progress though.

 

His last one was questionable. He went straight up and Lin did a good job of leaning in with his head to draw the foul. I think Robin would have gotten the benefit of the doubt on that one.

 

Welcome to the club! The board cleans up nicely and what I really like is that now when you ignore someone, even replies to their posts disappear. Much better game thread experience without all that negative affirmation BS

 

Was this a KLove comparison?

 

You know what I liked about Meyers's performance last night? He didn't force ANYTHING offensively, and only one thing defensively (that stupid lunge at Nick Young to end the game). He shoots well this season because he only takes shots he's pretty sure he'll make. I like that.

 

Vanilla Trout is a good (but not tasty... yuck) way of looking at him.

 

Just don't call him "Rainbow" Trout. There is a certain Kansas Congregation that might picket the Blazers.

Oops. Too late. We already have the Rainbroz.

That explains it!

 

Meyers is Cousin Leo in the Rainbroz family!

 

See Denny, Sly and Mags!

 

Be careful! Reading homers only may result in an erection lasting more than four hours.
You know what that means!

 

Was it also frustrating watching him put up 12 and 12 in less than 19 minutes 0n .800 FG%, .750 3FG%, 1.000 FT% and 0 TOVs?

Here's something that all the Leonard haters are going to hate to admit, but it's true: We do not win that game last night without Meyers Leonard.

The guy is young and inexperienced. He's a work in progress, but at least he's making progress. Last year, he improved one of his major weaknesses - rebounding. His TRB% went from 12.3 to 16.8 and is up to 17.9 this season - a VERY respectable number.

I'm more concerned about him being in proper defensive position and going straight up than blocking shots. The blocked shots will come later. It's obvious Leonard has been working on it - trying to learn what Freeland learned last season. Leonard and Freeland were rookies together, and in spite of being 5 years older and having 6 years of experience playing professionally in Europe, Freeland looked every but as lost as Leonard as rookies. Then Freeland worked hard in the off season to improve his defensive fundamentals. Last year, Freeland became very good at getting good defensive position and going straight up and became a solid NBA backup big man. Now that he has the positioning down, Freeland is challenging and blocking more shots (from 0.8 to 1.1 to 1.3 BLK/36). The younger, less experienced Leonard is learning the same lessons Freeland learned, but is a year or two behind.

You know what is REALLY frustrating? The complete lack of improvement of Thomas Robinson. Like Freeland and Leonard, Robinson is in his third season and he has shown ZERO progress on improving his weaknesses or acquiring a single NBA level skill. He continues to rely 100% on his athleticism. He still makes rookie mistakes, including, stupid, unforced turnovers and blown defensive assignments and can't make FT to save his life. In fact, he's actually getting worse. I don't know if it's a lack of work ethic or a lack of intelligence, but this guy is looking more and more like a lost cause. When the Blazers decided to decline his 4th year option, I thought it was 100% for financial reasons - after all, the guy makes more money than Damian Lillard, but now, I'm thinking the coaching staff has realized Robinson is never going to develop the skills to take advantage of his incredible athleticism - that Leonard was both cheaper and had a greater chance of developing into a decent NBA big man.

Right now, the ONLY things Robinson does significantly better than Leonard are get steals and make a spectacular block once or twice a year. And, it's not like he's a good defender, or even a good shot blocker. He has 4 blocks in 228 minutes (BLK% = 1.2) compared to 2 BLK in 140 minutes for Leonard (BLK% = 1.0). Rebounding is also practically a draw (TRB% 18.9 vs. 17.9 for Leonard) and in EVERY other aspect of the game, Robinson is a liability and worse than Meyers Leonard. Think about that. When you're worse that Meyers Leonard and not showing ANY improvement, you probably don't belong on an NBA roster.

And then there are the stupid, unforced TOVs. Robinson has 50% more TOVs (23) than AST, BLK and STL combined (15). His AST/TOV ratio is an abysmal 4/23 = .174 and his TOV% of 24.9 is embarrassing. By comparison. Leonard's AST/TOV is 4/4 = 1.0 and his TOV% is an excellent 8.0.

And then there is the FT shooting. Robinson is 15/37 for a FT% of .405. Somewhere, Shaq and Chris Dudley are laughing at Thomas Robinson. Of course, you could argue that Robinson draws a lot more fouls than Leonard, but he draws them for the wrong reason. Teams intentionally foul him for possession when he's in the game. Leonard isn't going to draw a lot of fouls as a jump shooter, but with a career FT% of .803, he's also not going to be the target of Hack-a-Leonard.

All this adds up to a PER = 15.6 for Leonard vs. 7.8 for TRob, .199 WS/48 for Leonard vs. .015 WS/48 for Robinson and VORP = +0.1 for Leonard vs. -0.6 for Robinson.

I think the target of your frustration is misplaced. Is Leonard great? No, but he continues to show improvement. Robinson has flat out sucked and isn't getting any better. He's played more minutes than both Leonard and Wright, but based on his production and net contributions, he hasn't deserved those minutes. With Rolo and Freeland out, I'd rather continue to see Leonard get more minutes than Robinson. Not only is Leonard more productive, but the extra PT will accelerate his improvement.

BNM

P.S. Sorry, probably not fair to single you out as you are far from the most vociferous of the Leonard bashers. Your quote about being frustrated with Leonard, after the game he had last night, was just a convenient jumping off point for my tirade.

 

The funny part from last night was that after watching Leonard miss his first 3 pt attempt, the Laker announcers proceeded to joke a little during his next 3 attempts......right as they all went in.

 

Yep, he certainly can't be accused of poor shot selection. He only shoots when he's open and feeling it. His TS% of .618 is now best on the team. We don't need him jacking up a ton of shots. Were far better of with him taking a few GOOD shots when the defense slacks off him.

BNM