What I don't understand is that the guy looked decent in his first summer league game. He has progressively gotten worse and worse every year.
Not sure what that has to do with anything. Batum looked horrible in his first summer league, then ended up starting in the regular season.
I really think a big part of it is the right people arent getting through to him. If you listen to interviews after the season ended and he talks about what he needs to work on, about what his coaches told him to work on in the exit interviews, he mentions a bunch of stuff on the offensive end. He always talks about practicing his shot and stuff like that. He does that because that's what he is already good at, and that's where he can continue to get positive feedback: "Hey kid, your shooting is really looking good". But what he needs to hear (or have pounded into his brain repeatedly, are the areas that he is really lacking, his defense, rotations, boxing out, rebounding, tipping to someone, how to switch, hurry the fuck down court after a made ball. If I were his coaches I would make him only practice D for a couple months to bring that into focus for him. Shit, make Freeland jump in scrimmages on the offensive end and Meyers jump in on the defensive end. Ever day, Meyers needs to get a report of how his D is coming along, and every coach should be banned from mentioning his offensive skills until he starts trying consistently on D. They say you need to do something for 10,000 hours to become an expert at it, regardless of what the thing is. We need Meyers to rack up more D hours and not get sidetracked on O.
It's the old "he's tall so he must be a basketball player" syndrome. If LMA was 6'6", he would be Nic Batum. If Leonard was 6'6", he would be flipping burgers or bagging groceries. Either a guy can play - or he can't. Leonard can't, but people can't see past his size.
I take back every word on this post. Leonard just played a better defensive game than I even hoped. I actually believe he may finally "get it".
You think because he didn't score he had a bad game?! That's actually the first time I saw him not look just to score, the first time I saw him at least try to play team defense. Leonard can score, he had that dunk and if I'm not mistaken a 3. He's a very talented scorer, that's not the issue. What will determine if he gets minutes is his defense and today I think he had the best game of his career on that side of the floor.
What does it have to do with anything? Well, I think it's generally a bad sign when someone is good in their first summer league, and then progressively worse with each subsequent summer league. Usually it's the other way around
I was thinking of red and black pinwheel hair makeover and throwing baseball passes the length of the court.
Kim Hughes has the job because he is Olshey's Clipper buddy. The Newell camp wouldn't accept Leonard. Seriously. You have to bring a history of effort and Pudding doesn't have it. Bullshit. Those guys improved only because they got experience learning several systems. The original team babies an awful player, and he needs more than one change of scenery, where they will yell at him. Should you have stayed forever at your first job?
Yeah, because Tiago Splitter started with the Spurs and then when he was 27 he played for the . . . Spurs. And even though all of the center mentioned struggled until they were 24+, it had nothing to do with age and maturity, but only to do with the systems they were in? Ok.
I've never seen anything. Link? He actually tried then. When regular season came, the effort was gone and Kim Hughes was busy saying that someday, somehow Leonard will be good. Not sure what that has to do with anything. Batum improved, Leonard regressed. Simple and obvious to anyone who watches.
This is a joke, right? Everyone in the game thread except you thought he sucked. He did nothing different from usual. He avoided all action. He was 15 feet away from every single rebound opportunity, defense or offense. He was a passive spectator. Next game, count how many times he scratches his shoulder and face because he's bored while on the court. Count that for his teammates. I did. It was about 10 for him and zero for them.
It isn't a single summer league game. It's literally every game we've seen from him since his rookie season. He spends too much time on the perimeter.
You pick Popovich's coaching as typical coaching. If he were our coach, I'd wait an extra year. (But Leonard would still have to show constant improvement, like Splitter did, to keep his job. At this late date, Popovich would cut the regressing Leonard, as we should.) Not usually, but Nate was just illustrating the regression.
