That's hard to say; sometimes i think he has got too much coaching; that he is thinking out there too much, instead of reacting.
Oh, and I do think he has some special offensive talents, which you don't usually see in a young big. So i am in favor of keeping him and trying stuff to make him better on defense and a tougher guy.
Leonard has one reliable skill--he's a high percentage scorer. And it's not just on dunks--he's got a pretty nice midrange and in shooting game. For a 21 year old 7 foot rookie center project, that's plenty reason to hold on to him and try to develop him into a starting center over the next couple of years. Look around the league and ask yourself, "How many 7 foot 21 year olds have even one real reliable NBA-caliber skill?" It ain't a long list. Even with just that skill and being 7 feet tall, he'll at least be a journeyman backup center in this league for a decade. He's a lot like the early years with Travis Outlaw. You see the potential and hope for the best, all the while realizing there's a reason why he was available in the draft as low as he was.
Maybe. Sort of sounds like Dirk Nowitzki in his first season too. Here's how he looks next to other jump shooting big men in their rookie years (Smits, Brad Miller, Dirk, Divac). None of these guys would go on to play that "enforcer" type role of rebounder/shot blocking center that we currently need. But they all had pretty damned productive NBA careers. I don't know that Leonard is destined to be as good as any of those guys. But there's a reasonable chance at least. That Leonard doesn't fill a role we desperately need next year doesn't really matter that much to me. You don't draft 20 year old center projects to fill a role in their second year. The nature of "projects" is that they take multiple years to develop, and who knows what kind of playing style he'll have (or the team will need) by the time he is ready for prime time. And if his talents don't align with our needs at that point, well, you trade him for something that does. Just look at LMA. He didn't "fit" next to Zach Randolph, but he worked out just fine.
We need a defensive center. of the list you gave, Leonard ranks last in defensive rating, second to last in blocks per game (36), he draws fouls at a extremely lower rate than the others (FTA) as well as his one specific skill, which is offense he ranks last in scoring and second to last in rebounds. Both his second to last ficishes are ahead of Dirk, who is a PF
This doesn't even make sense. You claim he isn't a good interior defender BECAUSE he didn't play it in high school. But in the next sentence you claim it has nothing to do with seasoning. At least make a small attempt at logic.
Right, because the center position is so easy to learn. http://www.blazersedge.com/2013/4/1...nard-posts-year-end-thoughts-on-nba-com-diary He's got the attitude and the work ethic, I'd say his career looks promising.
Maybe it's just me, but a thread like this showing up after a game where Leonard is obviously overmatched going up against All-Stars in Howard and Gasol seems, well, a bit pathetic. Give me a single rookie center who wouldn't have looked like chopped liver against those two the way they were playing last night. Meyers has a lot to learn and some glaring weaknesses, but how about giving the kid at least one full season and a summer off-season to work on those deficiencies before declaring him a bust?
I liked his effort last night. He may not know what he's doing yet, but last night against Howard, he was trying really hard to do it. Dude's gotta be one big bruise from his thighs to his nipples, he was really banging on Dwight all game long. The will is there, the body is getting there, we just have to get his brain to catch up. This kid's gonna be pretty danged good, IMHO...
Interior defense can be tweaked, but it's like court vision. It can't be taught. Leonard can play the next 5-6 years and he will still be a below average interior defender.
Did you make this same post when the threads of his impending HOF induction were happening after games against teams with no centers?
Pretty much ignored them. Would have ignored this one too, except that I'm still ticked off from all of the purple-and-piss covered louts I had to listen to at last night's game.
Pretty spot on. Some people tend to forget that it usually takes bigs a couple of years to learn how to play in the nba. Everyone keeps mentioning Joel who looked like a bust his first two seasons. Pek/hibbert/McGee/bynum/sanders/Jordon, there are a ton more but I can't think of them off the top of my head, all looked in danger of being a bust there rookie year. Big men projects are exactly that, projects that take awhile to develop. Some people are to quick to pass judgement on rookies, especially ones drafted as a several year project. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
I hope I am wrong unless we deal him. You can't teach instincts, sorry. Meyers has shown zero on the defensive end.
Which has nothing to do with your first post about how he won't ever play interior defense because he played SG in high school.
I think you can teach defense (only to a point when guys are this far along in their development) but you can't teach toughness. I don't exactly get the "tough guy" vibe from Meyers, but assuming they don't trade him, I don't have a problem at least giving him a couple of years off of the bench to see if he can develop into something approximating a NBA pivot.
