Defensively, he makes some good moves sometimes but still has no offensive game to speak of. I think he's a low risk/high reward type of player. Like I don't know, pretty much every player Olshey acquired this year. Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
that Vonleh will post a line of 4 and 5 and get praised for it along with people overrating his defense (he fouled out), while Leonard well post the same line and get condemned for it.
Vonleh had 5 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in 25 minutes. Meyers had 7 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 0 blocks in 22 minutes. Vonleh got some ticky tack fouls (as did every Blazer tonight....hence the foul trouble) but plays the best perimeter defense of all the Blazer big men. Since the Blazers seem to switch almost everything, that is important. No one is saying he is an all-star but that if he is going to play, Stotts should actually run some plays for him like they do everyone else.
Leonard has been in the league longer and is closer to his ceiling. We expect more from him this year than we do from Vonleh.
Vonleh is 20 and already a much better defender than Leonard and it's not all about stat lines. Watching Leonard play is just frustrating because of his terrible defense and his complete inability to do anything useful with his height. He plays like a 6'5" spot up shooter who is a liability on defense. I really don't understand how people can like his game. He can hit wide open threes and knows how to pass.. And that's it. You seem to severely overrate him.
Vonleh's defense is quite good actually. Not just for a 2nd year player but for any PF in general. I think that is clearly his best attribute right now. Sadly his rebounding is quite poor and his offense is virtually non-existent. It's hard for him to get more minutes in Terry's offense when they have to play 4 on 5 with him on the floor. I think his minutes are fine for now. (Think Batum in 08-09)
Leonard still provides better floor spacing - and as reliant as we are on guard penetration, that's more important than what Vonleh can bring at this point.
Seems clear to me that Vonleh starts for his defense, when defense at his position is more important than offense, considering our starting guards have been lighting it up all season. I think his minutes are fine.
I agree with most of what you said, but I don't think his rebounding is that bad. Granted his stats say 8.7 (per 36 min) as a starter, where he was at 12.0 last year off the bench, but I like his effort and instincts. "Quite poor" is an embellishment IMO.
His TRB% is 13.2%. That is like pre 13-14 LMA levels, and we know how much flak Aldridge was getting as a rebounder before that season. From the eye test he seems to consistently get outworked by similar sized players an is unable to grab rebounds over guys that are longer than him. Also, if you look at player tracking stats for rebounding here: http://nyloncalculus.com/stats/detailed-nba-rebounding-stats/ and filter by just Blazers players, you'll see that he has by far the worst rebounding win % (Percentage of contested rebounds secured.) of any of the rotation players at 28.9%, lower than even the point guards. From these stats it seems like he goes after a lot of rebounds, but is just unable to secure them, so perhaps the problem isn't effort, but technique. Sadly, technique is a lot harder to teach than effort. Perhaps "quite poor" is a bit of an overstatement, but at the very I least I would say it is disappointing, considering rebounding was supposed to be one of his strengths coming into the league.
People are so impatient in general. They say Stotts has mismanaged the situation... and they want to see Vonleh out there with plays being ran for him because this year is about development. But if Vonleh had plays ran for him and failed in a game or two or a month of games.... They'd say Stotts mismanaged it too. I'd rather Vonleh show the ability to grow in practice with some game time. Rather than average 30+mpg and develop bad habits. It's not about who starts, it's about who finishes.
I really see Vonleh as a young Zbo...low center of gravity, range, plays below the rim. I'm thrilled Stotts is giving him starter classes against real PFs this early. He's in school.
