I wonder if Freeland has a clean bill of health seeing as how we went after bigs right off the bat. He still seemed hobbled in the playoffs. We also need bench scoring really badly and Joel isn't an offensive threat
He put up good numbers in the Euroleagues, I liked that he worked on defense and rebounding. Scoring will come.
I think we went after 'bigs' because we needed a better backup. Kaman is a bigger, better center than Joel (who is more of a forward). The Kaman signing makes Joel expendable and gives Meyers another year to develop without us having to rely on him.
Teammates, most of whom gushed publicly about his skill and potential at the end of the season, know what he’s capable of. Most important, the coaches in Portland believe the 245-pound freak of an athlete will soon be a solid contributor. “He does have great potential,” said the 62-year-old Hughes, a former Wisconsin standout who played for the Nets, Nuggets and Cavaliers. “I think he’s going to be very good.” The 6-foot-11 Hughes, a former Nuggets and Clippers assistant who was the Clippers’ interim head coach for 33 games in 2010, said Leonard deserved more minutes last season than he got, but with the team making a playoff run, Portland didn’t use its bench much. Hughes said Leonard’s outside shot is solid, and his still-developing post game is serviceable. It’s at the defensive end where Leonard needs to make his most improvement. “The things he has to work on is challenging shots more often,” Hughes said. “If he just assumes a presence defensively, he’s a help defender, he’ll get a few more minutes. That’s typical of big men in our league, he’s got to get minutes to get better. Until he gets more minutes on the floor, he’s going to be a little bit behind in terms of progression. But all big guys get better by playing; none of them get better by watching.”
Funny, I took this as a sign that ML is in their plans as Kaman was given a short term contract. edit: I'm not contradicting you, just making a tangential point.
I completely disagree. Mock, tease or whatever you people need to do, but I have been a coach at a high level of high school boys basketball, and you absolutely CAN NOT teach feel. As for Bball IQ, Brandon Jennings, Monta Ellis, Rudy Gay, JR Smith and JaVale McGee are just a few players I can think of off the top of my head that get a ton of playing time and have really low BBall IQs All this being said, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to find out Meyers has ADHD, or like Kaman, something else. Maybe he is not on meds, or not on the right meds? After two years of major college and two years of professional basketball, there are only a couple of reasons to say "what the fuck are you doing out there?" 1 is maybe his focus is off for a reason and the other is he sucks
Short term for next summer when they will have the ability to go after a major FA. Not sure that speaks to Meyers either way.
I mentioned this before, but I know during th Houston series Meyers was scout team Dwight Howard and his teammates lovingly called him white Dwight because he dominated down low in practice. He told Stotts when asked why not do that in games that it's not his game
His only friends are the asst. coach assigned as his handler, the GM who can't bring himself to trade him, and the player who stole his job. No other players? Maybe he should forget business and make it personal!
Agreed, and with Meyers not even sure if that will do it. But I am completely perplexed why the Blazers have not had him in D_league the last two seasons. They could afford to send a big man coach with him.
How could our annual summer position-to-fill send him the wrong message? 2013: Hibbert, then Splitter, then Lopez. 2014: Hawes, then Kaman. It's just a coincidence that every single one is a center. Drafted to replace Hickson, Olshey has total confidence in him.
