Yeah, even in college at 7-1 his rebounding was pretty meh when you consider his height advantage. Mediocre rebounding is not a trait I want my center to have. Btw, anyone catch Rice talking about Leonard's defense last night? There was a play I guess where a defender basically shot a layup right under Leonard's arm and Rice said Terry Stotts just turned the other way and shook his head. I think the Blazers know Meyers Leonard is very, very, very far away from being a NBA defender. I'd be more optimistic about him, but I think his style is to be more of a soft player that is likes to play away from the basket. He'd be a good center for a Mike D'Antoni team.
BTW, I think there's a quantum element in Leonard Mayer. Simply by observing Mylon, you change his state. He doesn't have a nickname so much as a sphere of possibilities.
It's the medias fault, every opponents shot is blocked and not blocked until the media examines it. If we turned off all cameras and made everyone face away, he would be both the best and worst shot blocker in history.
Myles Lynheard really sticks at defense. Though he's improved from the beginning of the season, where he was getting abused 1 on 1 in he post. But he rarely blocks, or even affects shots in the paint. He's such a good shooter though, I wonder why the Blazers don't let him take more outside shots? If he's not scoring, you may as well have a small forward playing center.
He is really passive, even when he gets an open shot a lot of times he looks to pass the ball. He is intimidated on both sides of the court which hopefully will go away with time.
Ooh yeah, and everyone else's once they are preoccupied with nards, should open it up for the other guys. Good point.
Yeah he's still so young. He is passive; but he's at an elite level now and overwhelmed. Not many rookie bigs come out amazing like shaq. Marc Gasol needed 3 years before he became as good as he is now.
Marc was better as a rookie than Meyers, but he was also 24 with several years experience playing professionally in the best leagues in Europe. BNM
True but he was hardly as good as he is now. You can tell that Leonard looks lost and the speed of the nba is getting the better of him. With some experience and summer work outs; he could, at worst, be a competent defender and rebounder. I are his offensive game improving too.
The problem with Lynyrd is not that he makes rookie mistakes. The real issue is that he plays like a bad euro big. Soft, no nose for the ball, no defensive instincts. When I hear people talk about how he can be an effective shooter from 15'.....I just cringe. We need a *center*, not an over-sized stretch 4 to back up LMA.
From the 11 spot in the draft, though, what would be wrong with a 7'1" back-up PF? Myrs has already shown he has NBA skills in his mid-range game. Look at other 11th picks the last 30 years and tell me what should be expected drafting at that spot. Lynyrd is already a better NBA player than Cole Aldrich, the last center picked in his spot. http://www.mynbadraft.com/nba-draft-picks/11th-overall/110509/
So unless I'm totally missing someone, there hasn't been an NBA All-Star drafted at #11 since Allen Houston 20 years ago, and very few impact starters.
I get what you're getting at, but i hate that "players taken at X spot have never been Y" etc.. At the 6th spot, there hasn't exactly been a dearth of talent their.
that link got me interested in looking the page some. check out the #3 pick (and kudos to anyone who notices whats wrong with it)
