Mark this prediction down: Meyers Leonard will win the 16-17 Most Improved Player award

I know who Elon Musk is. I've met him. I know who Elton John is. I haven't met him. I didn't know they had a baby.

BNM

 

@Boob-No-More

You gonna take this?

Actually he brought up a couple points you missed.
I'm now gonna ask my iphone these same questions and see if I get the same answer that you gave. This will confirm that you are actually an encyclopedia bot!

 

"One of the early surprises of the first day of Portland's 2016 training camp was how far along Meyers Leonard seems to be in regard to returning to the court after undergoing surgery in April to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. While there are still some activities the 7-1 power forward is not yet cleared for, he was seen at practicing participating in full court, three-on-three drills, showing no ill effects of the surgical procedure.

But it was Leonard's right shoulder making news at the second of Portland's two-a-day practices on Tuesday. In a shooting contest after practice, Leonard used his right arm to throw a one-armed, full-court shot through the hoop, and with only limited effort.

Obviously the shot is a feat, but assistant coach David Vanterpool predicting Leonard would be the first to sink the 94-foot attempt right before the attempt is impressive in its own right. That's called knowing your personnel. Then again, it's not like this was the first time that Vanterpool has seen Leonard can a cross-court attempt...."

 

Right, I'm going to apologize to everyone for something I said in an online forum. You must be new here. That's not how the internet works.

I did not give Meyers Leonard all the credit for the team's turn around. I just pointed out when he plays well and shoots the three pointer at an elite level, the Blazers play better as a team. That doesn't sound too outlandish to me, and certainly nothing warranting an apology.

You need to check your facts before you get all indignant and start demanding apologies.

And yes, I watched every single game. You should try it some time. You might find it both entertaining and enlightening.

Hardly played? Bullshit, complete and utter bullshit. Couldn't play him? Again, complete made up bullshit.

Here's some facts for you to noodle on.

During the stretch I cited, from Christmas to March 14 (the date of his season ending injury) Meyers Leonard played in every single game and averaged over 22 MPG. Leonard and Gerald Henderson were our only bench players to play in every game during that stretch and Leonard played more minutes than Ed Davis, Gerald Henderson, Maurice Harkless and Noah Vonleh. I suppose all those guys hardly played, too.

If YOU had watched the games, you would have realized that it was Mo Harkless who "barely played" during that stretch. It was Harkless, not Leonard, that racked up multiple DNP-CDs and had several more games where he played less than 10 minutes. He averaged less than 15 MPG in the games he did play in.

Leonard was also third on the team in made 3-pointers (63) during that stretch, trailing only Dame and C.J. He was also our most accurate 3-point shooter (.457 3FG%) during that stretch. Although he played about 4 fewer MPG, he made more 3-pointers (63 to 51) than Allen Crabbe and shot the 3 better as well (.457 vs. .395). He also made more 3-pointers and shot the 3 better than Aminu (46 made 3-pointers, .329 3FG%) and Harkless (16 made 3-pointers, .281 3FG%)

You obviously hate the guy and it's blinding your objectivity. Perhaps you owe him an apology.

BNM

 

My concern with Meyers improving a lot this year, is that he has been injured for almost the whole off season. What was he able to work on? If he does improve I am guessing it will be later in the year, and then will hopefully carry over to next year.

Sounds like Ezeli will be back soon, while Vonleh might be a while. But that still leaves Plums, Ezeli, Davis, and Aminu ahead of him to start the year. I don't expect much from him early on.

 

This is a very good point - but there are two things that might help him:

1. Supposedly - the shoulder has been bothering him since college

2. Mental space

I am a ML fan and hope that he gets that big breakthrough - because if he does - this team is going to be a real force.

 

Let me know if any of this is wrong. I’m making a lot of mistakes lately.

We played the Grizz in the 2014/15 playoffs. We lost, but, Meyers had a great series against their big elite defenders. He scored almost 2 points for every minute played, and at a very efficient %. He even pulled down some boards. He was playing at a very high level at the end of that season.

We expected him to continue that great play last season, but, he did not. He was OK, but not great like he was at the end of 14/15 season. Now we find out he played hurt most of the season.

If he is healthy, and plays like he did at the end of the 14/15 season. He could be in the discussion to make the all-star team.

 

Read my quoted post above.

Meyers is basically 100% already. He made a full court shot!!!! Thats shoulder strength!

 

You guys see Meyers drain the 94 ft shot at the practice today...with his repaired shoulder? This is the guy to shoot the hail mary buzzer beater from downtown..didn't even graze the rim and barely moved the net...Meyers made it look like a freethrow...he's a really gifted shooter when he's set..now he just needs to do that with a quicker release

 

He might be 100 % right now, but that doesn't mean he has had been for very long.

I guess he could have been in the weight room working on his lower body. But with no contact, I can't see him improving his low post skills. I believe he is a hard worker and expect him to improve.....but the injury was a set back. It will delay things a few months IMO.

 

He had a great shooting season in 2014-15. A rare 50/40/90 season. And then, as you mentioned, he shot the ball incredibly well in the MEM series.

After signing Plumlee, he was slotted in as our starting stretch 4, and for some unknown reason that seemed to fuck with his head. I think he was trying to force things too much. He got off to a terrible start last season. He couldn't make shit. His was missing wide open 3-pointers and couldn't even make his FTs.

But, as I mentioned several times, he did turn it around and was back to being an elite 3-point shooter prior to his season ending shoulder injury. He was 2 for his first 18 3-point attempts, but after November 5, he shot .400 3FG% and after Christmas he was a truly elite .457 from 3-point range.

I'm not worried about his shooting. It's the other areas of his game where I want to see improvement and consistency.

He rebounded the ball well in his second and third seasons, but regressed to his rookie level last year. I want to see a more consistent effort on the boards, especially on the defensive glass.

Last year we saw that he also has some good passing skills. I want to see more of that. I want to see him whipping the ball to open shooters on the perimeter and cutters slashing to the basket. He has good court vision and is a crisp, accurate passer. I want to see more of that.

In spite of what others claim, he does have good post moves and that soft shooting touch works just as well close to the basket as it does from 22 feet. He only took 19 hook shots last season, but he made 13 of them. Let's see more of that. And for god's sake, when you are close to the basket, dunk the fucking ball every single time. He has the size and strength to throw it down on anyone. He just needs to realize it. Perhaps the shoulder really was bothering him all season and he was shying away from contact. This season, I want to see him start using his size advantage on offense to go with that great outside shooting. I think Meyers becoming an inside presence would help the team even more than Mason adding a jump shot. Meyers can already shoot. He needs to become a beast.

BNM

 

I hit a 3 with Plumlee.

 

I don't think MyLe will get enough minutes to win MIP. He's sharing minutes with Aminu, Harkless, and Vonleh.

 

Im gunna go through this point by point as best I can understand them.

Lets start with logic:
by your logic we should ignore the bad games someone plays cause the good ones prove your point better and then cherry pick one obvious stat to prove it. So if you can do it for the positive I can for the negative, like for example this sentence: "All Im saying is its no coincidence we won a playoff series and meyers lenoard didnt play, meyers is terrible on defense (insert obvious defensive stat here)". See how I kinda used your words against you here? Like meyers can shoot the three ball; no one is discounting that, but there is more to basketball than the ability to hit wide open looks(the only one's he has the courage to take).

See how infuriating that can be?
but moving on...

Could we actually give meyers valuable minutes:
no you could not play him and the end of games, or against starters both scenarios were dumpster fires especially when he cant hit his shot, like that first half of the season that you keep wanting to ignore, he's worthless. however both of those scenarios i mentioned, Harkless can and perform well. No one, not even you, can debate that when harkless played 25mins or more we were 17-5 when meyers does we're 6-10 so... yeah...

facts and stuff.

The apology:
you took wayyy to literally! and for that I am sorry, thats my bad I must have gotta little carried away. Shoulda maybe been in green but it wasn't really sarcasm just more idk boredom and fucking around.

But that's not my point. We're talking about nards.

Meyers Lenoard:
I dont hate meyers. He's a basketball player, and I have a life, thats just petty. I will say: I haven't liked watching him play basketball all that much save for a few instances, but i dont hate the guy. All Im sayin is people (like you, you wonderful boob) need to cool it with the meyers hype, much of which he brings on himself, but some by posters like you. He will never live up to our expectations. I should know, I mean I was super high on Meyers this time last year. I thought THIS WAS THE YEAR he was gunna put it all together and this freak athlete of a 7 footer would really show out, and you know what happened? He played like the same as he did the year before same as the kid we drafted outta college, lost as a puppy on defense tentative and forehead slapping on offense. How many times did you yell SHOOT THE BALL!!!! at the tv screen last year cause meyers wouldnt? 100 times? 1000 times? I know I did. It's because he has no basketball instincts. There is no stat for that you just have to watch him miss defensive rotations and pass up open looks. There is no other way to see it I guess. Lets not forget either this was year 4 in the same system for Meyers last year and he STILL looked lost. I dont think a new contract, a new shoulder, or a new season is going to mean anything but more of the same from him.

Oh and I watched all 82 last year plus pre and postseason so..... I got that goin for me which is nice.

 

Has anyone tried starting Ezeli at C and Plumlee at PF while sliding Aminu over to SF? Turner off the bench.

 

Unless he comes out and kills it and wins the minutes.

 

That fucker (sure would look the part of Vulcan in the makeup) is a Romulan!

 

And, that's kind of the point. Right now, no one is going to be guarding Mason Plumlee 15 feet from the basket. You said yourself he's one of the worst shooters in the league. You think other teams don't know that? They are going to camp under the rim and dare him to shoot that shot, just like they did last season. Until he starts taking, and making, that shot consistently, he is going to be wide open. But, if he can start making it at a decent percentage, it will force opposing defenses to play up on him, and that's a good thing as it draws the opposing rim protector away from the basket and Mason has proven to be great at hitting cutters diving to the basket. The point isn't to turn Mason into a scoring machine. It's to force opposing defenses to guard him more than 3 feet away from the basket.

BNM

 

If Mason duplicates Rolo's 15 ft jumper he'll get 14 pts on a good night like Rolo did....I'd rather see him work on using the glass in the paint and finish at the rim with the ball but any pts from our bigs is a bonus

 

If Meyers continues his 3pt% and is able to bang inside, Moe improves his 3pt shot and Plums develops a 10-15 ft jumper, we will be contenders if we stay healthy. I fully believe that.