I actually think Meyers could guard LMA. LMA isn't quick, and he doesn't like it when guys get physical - which is what Meyers excels at. Also, don't we want the Spurs trying to go through LMA rather than Kawahi, Parker, Duncan, etc?
It's not so much the 1v1 matchup with LMA. The Spurs move people and the ball better than anyone, Meyers would get lost trying to keep up.
Popovich would just put Myers in pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop situations. He's a defensive liability.
To be fair. Not many players don't get lost playing the Spurs but yes i am sure Meyers would get caught out of position numerous times. This would happen to Plumlee and Davis also. As it does to every team they play.
This was stated quite definitively, and has never been disputed, but how do we know? Have we seen examples of him being badly burned by PFs the way Meyers has? Is the assumption that his lateral quickness is comparable to if not worse than Meyers'? If Meyers were to start (which, BTW, I don't think he should), why exactly wouldn't Plums be able to man the 4 spot?
Julius Randall is the same age and has had much fewer games. And already half his games played he's had double doubles. Vonleh was picked only two spots or so over him
Actually i have seen Meyers and Plums together and Plums do just fine on the 4 while Meyers worked the center position. It worked in Chicago. But again this is all on Stotts and rotation adjustments. I started this thread because of Quick's post. I do believe there are times when Meyers is the best option but not always. Got to use this complete team.
Meyers has played well lately. We need him to become the third option offensively. We need a big who is a threat to score. I love Ed but he isn't going to be a consistent scorer. I think the frustrating thing with Meyers for most is that if he just developed a move or two down low he becomes a force offensively and makes the Blazers Play him. He becomes a huge mismatch offensively if he develops the post game. The big guys like Jordan Drummond Bogut Howard do not want to be at the 3 pt line and undersized bigs cannot play him inside if he develops that skill. As he is, he only provides floor spacing because his defense is poor when in pick and roll and some of the decisions he makes make you go WTF is he thinking. Also it is extremely frustrating watching a guy 7 ft 1 have 17 blocks on a season with as many minutes as he gets. With that said, there are plenty of guys in the league worth starting even though their defense is poor. The offense just has to outweigh the defensive issues and mental mistakes. In terms of potential playoff match ups, I think you start Meyers instead of Mason against the Warriors because Bogut just wants to stand in the paint. I also think you start Harkless and Aminu or Aminu and Crabbe in this series. I think you keep him off the bench against the Spurs. Against the Clippers you start him at center and bring mason off the bench. Jordan is just like Drummond or Howard and is a nightmare matchup for Plumlee. Also clippers tend to trap guards like lillard and curry with Jordan. Meyers would be an escape pass that can get wide open shots (the same shots he likes to take anyway). I could see the Clippers putting Blake on Meyers. Meyers needs to never be on Blake griffindefensively. Against OKC I think you start both mason and Meyers as ibaka and Adams are not really huge threats offensively. I would play Mason on Ibaka and Meyers on Adams.
Exactly! Why would you sit Meyers over Harkless? He has had like two good games this season i'll give him that but Meyers had been solid in as many as 20 games this year.
There would be a difference with Meyers. Ed might give up some open long two's where Meyers would get burned for layups while fouling.
Good post. Yeah I agree with the matchup although I wonder if that's more how the minutes get handed out by the end of the game and less whom we start. Does Stotts like starting Vonleh because it gets the opponent over confident and leaves so much firepower on our bench? A few problems with starting Meyers in place of Mason. Mason really helps the offensive ball movement with traps and his, passing, movement, dribbling. Mason is better at pushing pace which we can do to tire out opponent starters than get to our superior bench. Meyers hasn't started all year; Mason has good chemistry with our starters. I tend to think we would've experimented starting Meyers at center this year if we were gonna do it at all in the playoffs. Meyers also commits so many fouls it's better to have him ease into the game against backups instead of getting two quick fouls early and screwing up the rotations all night. With DameCJ both starting we don't need Meyers shooting there as much as on the second unit.
Sit, maybe not. Start - yes. Give Leonard the bulk of his minutes against the other team's back-up center. Leonard has been playing better...but the eye-test says he is doing it in low pressure situations.
I think he meant overall. I re-read your quote and I couldn't discern if that part of your comment was just about plumlee or as a whole, so I could see the confusion. Meyers has started 10 games this year, fwiw.
