Nah. I'll pass. I watched that UCLA team quite a bit last year and he never stood out to me enough to where I was like, "Wow. My team needs this guy!" Apparently, Lamar Ball thought so too. (Yuck yuck yuck!)
Whenever I watch him, my thought process goes something like, "He could be really good. Why doesn't he have more impact?"
Shows how much basketball I watch these days. I clicked the video and was like "a white guy?" If that's wrong of me I'm just being honest about my first thought.
Pretty safe bet to be a 4th-5th big as an offense-only 4, but I think it'll be hard for him to be a valuable rotation player on a contending team in today's NBA. Bad frame/strength plus little rim protection and switchability defensively is pretty hard to overcome unless your elite offensively and able to handle a sizable USG%.
You just got to wait until they talk in interviews.... If they have speak with an Eastern European dialect, they are the right kind of white people.
Who's Josep? Did he mean to say Joseph? We need two-way players, and Leaf has 0 chance of becoming that. Pass.
There are too many red flags to Leaf’s game. I doubt he can make an impact on O in the NBA. He is too easy to guard, plus his D sucks everywhere on the floor. Just a so-so FT shooter, which does not indicate last season’s 3PT shooting streak will continue. I believe many of the PFs in this draft are overrated, not underrated. This includes Leaf, and especially Markkanen who I would not even draft in the second round, and is a much better shooter than Leaf. Neither player is worth a roster spot on a contending team.
I am not going to defend him again except to say I think he and Vonleh would both give us some versatility at PF. Their skills are opposite. Both seem like a good fit next to Nurk. Leaf in particular would fit in next to Nurk and a SF (i.e Harkless or ET) who are not good outside shooters. Because he will make up for it. His moves are a little mechanical but he is still fundamentally sound with good handles and passing for a big guy. I prefer him at 20 though...not 15
Kevin Love is the new Larry Bird, such as it is. Well, really, it was Dirk Nowitzki, but I assume you wanted it to have a "Made in America" tag.
Whenever I think of Larry Bird, I think of Kenny Daglish in soccer or Wayne Gretzky in hockey. Guys that dominated their sport despite being average physical specimens. They all had a vision and speed of thought that was probably unmatched in their respective disciplines.
Perhaps you'd prefer who draftexpress has us taking in their latest mock draft: #15 - Ike Anigbogu #20 - Harry Giles #26 - Tyler Lydon I'm not high on Leaf (ha!), but he currently has two more good knees than Giles. Portland drafting Tyler Lydon would tick off all of Mediocre Man's boxes (white, American born, from Syracuse). Personally, I can't think of a worse way to waste three first round picks in a deep draft. BNM
So Steph Curry? Probably the closest thing to an "average physical specimen" that dominates in the NBA.
