I'd be more encouraged with this news if it read he worked all summer on requisite big man skills. How he doubled his lower body strength, increased his vertical 5 inches, worked on holding the ball high at all times (especially off rebounds), doubled his footwork dexterity, and played in competitive pick up games everyday for all day and all night. The least of his problems is his shooting stroke and touch. Sure, it's a problem, but it's the least of his problems and the article suggests it was the emphasis of his workouts. Along with running sprints and losing those make or break 10 lbs. Meyers biggest issue is his lack of basketball instincts that only comes with lots and lots of playing. The better players in the league put in their "10,000" hours a long time ago, relative to Meyers career length. From what I understand, Meyers started playing later in his teens and he left college pretty early. Shooting 500 shots a day ironing out mechanical glitches and running lanes isn't going to help his instincts much. I hope the article left out a lot of what he actually did. I'm not 80 confident it did though. Shooting and body training are pretty much the only positive things he's known for, so it wouldn't surprise me if that where the bulk of his work was put in. Actually, that article was replete with loads of frighteningly revealing information and implications about Stotts, the team, and the NBA. None of it surprising, though.
OK, let's say for the benefit of arguing that Meyers has changed/improved. Let's even go so far as to say he's a beast!! My question is this: why should I not think that at a particular moment of adversity he doesn't shrink back to last year's Meyers? And... such moments of adversity could even be as small as one of the rookies playing well.
https://media.giphy.com/media/Ou18ZgE49Fss0/giphy.gif The best part about this gif is that it loops, so you can use it on Meyers year after year.
Negative comment after negative comment. Just curious. Isn't this exactly what just about every Blazer fan wanted Meyers to do? We all wanted Meyers to get a healthy summer of hard work in. We all wanted him to show what it means to him by hiring his own personal trainer to improve. Spend some of that $40 million to get better. We all wanted him to work on confidence levels. We all wanted him to do the power basketball moves to the rim. We all wanted him to work on dominating when faced with a smaller player in front of him. This is exactly what every Negative Nancy on this forum wanted from Meyers Leonard. But he still gets very little respect. Weird?
yeah, and this guy has worked with several players and we have a lot of young guys who could benefit - with all the money invested in this roster it seems like a no brainer to pay a guy like this a good chunk of change
You are exactly correct. What is reported is what everyone wanted from him. The comments are based on the doubt that what is reported will actually translate into something worthwhile on the court. The article itself said as much: the hard part is proving it. I think it's going to take a full season of solid play to wash the taste of 5 years of MyLe disappointment out of the mouths of most. I'm looking forward to pre-season though. I'd be stoked to see a focused, confident Meyers.
He need to show in training camp and the preseason games. I wish him luck due that if he improve like they said he did it makes us stronger as a team. Every training camp has a chance to prove himself that include Leonard.
Yeah, Meyers is definitely a SLOW study. It seems like he has had a lot of maturing to do. I also think he'll stick in the league a while. He'll probably never make MM change his tune on him, but he still has a chance to be a decent player.
Sure, but I'd love to see him show himself to be a quality player here first, so that the other team will consider him an asset and give us something decent in return for him.
Totally agree. He has to put together a solid season. Good numbers and a solid work ethic will do much to help ease the bashing.
I would love to see Nurk take Meyers 'under his wing' and be a positive influence on him, and help keep him in a positive frame of mind. The armchair psychologist in me thinks Meyers needs a strong role model close by at all times. It would be great if Nurk was willing and able to provide that.
Just so I understand: You would love to see Meyers become a beast, but on another team? If he's going to become a solid player, wouldn't it be better for us if it was on our team?
Okay so here is another scenario altogether. What if Meyers gets quite a bit better. Lets say there is another injury to Davis and Meyers needs to step up. He starts getting minutes and produces lets say 12/7. His ability to spread the floor starts to show and he does the job well on the glass on the defensive end. Then when needed, plays along side Nurkic and he continues to show the ability to pass that we all have already seen. The twin tower effect works and they win some big games. Meyers even has a couple good games where the 3's were falling. 18-20 point type outings. Now Meyers is a rotational guy and he can hit a Free Throw. Who do you trade now? Davis? Leonard? We all know we don't want Aminu at the 4 all the time.
I was sarcastic, hes a trash player and will remain so, but thats not even the main problem, hes so weak, little stronger than a girl...
