Meyers may flash ability from time to time, but he brain-farts way, way too often for me to ever trust him. People can talk about "potential" as much as they want, but Meyers is exactly the kind of guy who is going commit some collosal fuck up in a critical playoff game down the line; it's in his DNA. We've seen these guys before. You know what I'm talking about. Sure Meyers will have moments of brilliance from time to time; if he didn't he wouldnt be the fools' gold tease that he is. Good luck to the team that maxes him out this summer. I'll take Vonlehs' defensive chops, athleticism and hustle (Harkless' too) in the long run over Beibs.
I was reading a discussion today in another thread about how power forward is our weakest position and what starting power forward we could/should get. All I could think was, why? We have Vonleh. His progression and timeline is exactly the same as the Blazers. When the Blazers are true contenders in two years, Vonleh will be right there.
Four years and and he's looking like Bargnani without the dribble. I will say one thing though - Meyers can guard the post.
Good post; I agree. If we are going against Hibbert or Gasol then Meyers has a role. Maybe Dwight Howard or Capela. But opposing teams are playing less and less of those guys. Its something we worry about 1 of every 5 games. Five years ago it was the opposite there were small ball lineups 1 of every 5 games.
Stotts coached a perfect game rotation wise . Meyers didn't play because of Green...Aminu had Green's number
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.
Meyers truly thought he was the 3rd option, core piece of the team going into the season...then something happened...my guess is that Mason, Ed, Noah and Cliff made him their bitch in practice and since then, he's trying to hold his head high and takes a lot of deep breaths..Meyers has a really high ceiling talent wise..but when they say a big takes 4-5 years to get it...Meyers would be a 5 year guy
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!
Due to the fact that the Blazers are in the playoff hunts Stotts going with his best 9 players every night. Yes Leonard will get minutes if the match up makes Stotts to play him. Right now he not only playing his best 9 players but these 9 guys is his best defense players too.
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.
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.
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
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.
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."
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.
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.
