[NCarmean18Participant]

 As an Illinois fan, I knew how tough it was going to be for Meyers Leonard to really get looked at as a rookie.  He’s very raw, and he still needs to develop a lot.  

He needs to develop more muscle, as his frame will allow him to get even bigger and stronger.  He’s strong, but not built like some of these NBA power forwards and centers.  Some of them are capable to back him down like he is nothing.  

The next thing that he needs to work on is his defense.  He has the ability to block shots, but he has been getting into foul trouble by not understanding when to back off and just allow the other team to score the points that they are going to obviously score.  Whenever he adds more muscle mass, that should provide some stability to keep working down low, and keep the opposing bigs from backing him down and getting easy looks.  

The final thing is his offensive game.  Now, Meyers Leonard is very efficient in terms of shooting percentages, especially so far in the NBA’s Summer League and Preseason.  However, he needs to look for his offense a little bit more, and develop both a go-to post move set, along with a consistant mid-range jump shot.  If he can develop these skills, he will turn out to be a pretty good center in the NBA.  

So far this preseason, I have been very impressed with my boy.  In 17.5 minutes of work per game, Leonard is averaging 7.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1 block per game.  He is also shooting a veey high and impressive percentage, shooting 76% FG, and 87% FT.  Not bad for the young, developing big man out of Illinois.  However, he is averaging 4.2 fouls in that span of time, which is something that he desperately needs to improve on.  Averaging 4 fouls in an entire game is bad enough, and to only average that in about 18 minutes?  Not good.  

So overall, I have been pretty impressed with Leonard’s play.  Sure, he needs work, but what rookie doesn’t?  He will continue to improve, and both he and Damian Lillard should have successful careers for the Portland Trail Blazers.  

[MkadozaParticipant]

 Leonard might have the higest ceiling of anyone in the draft class not named Davis or Drummond. He’s long, athletic and explosive with decent instincts. In 3 years people will really question why 10 teams passed on him…

OR he could just be a serviceable post player with moments of brilliance. Personally, especially with the growth of players like Deandre Jordan and McGee to a lesser extent, I will always take a physically dominant big, and that exactly what the long and athletic Leonard is. Great pick over all by th eBlazer to compliment Lillard through his development.

[F_S mock]

 i was super high on leonard. people kept saying he was gonna be a bust and i kept him in the lottery and over a couple other bigs for a long time. i don’t think people realized how much of an athletic freak he is.

i can confidently say i was higher on him that mostly everyone on this board

he looked very good the couple times i saw him play. he does need to lower the fouls but that will come with time.

 

[Meditated StatesParticipant]

Knew he would be gone. He dunks everything around the hoop wich you want your center to do. I thought he was a real good prospect.

[HitsterParticipant]

His draft range was a bit up in the air, personally I would have had him just inside the top 10 but 12th wasn’t too bad and Portland got him as their 2nd first round pick this year which took the pressure off him. He’ll get good rotation minutes in a young frontcourt and he can form a long term partnership with LMA in due course. 

[JoeWolf1]

 I was impressed by him at the combine, more due to the fact he transformed his body.  He seriously is on his way to Dwight Howard shoulders if he keeps up that progress.  I think he has a bright future.

[SiggyParticipant]

 I like Meyers. Offensively, I think he’ll be fine, but right now he’s just playing the energy, screener, dump off guy on that end.  It’s understandable that they’re not running any plays for him so far, but even for a rookie I think they’re underutilizing him.  If he’s not setting a screen they usually just have him sitting weak side short corner looking for dumpoffs and trying to sneak in for O-boards.  The times where he’s managed to duck in and get deep position he almost always finishes.  His touch on his jump hook is tremendous.  He does have good touch on his mid-range jumper as well, but he hasn’t been in a position to use it.

His defense has been very bad though.  It seems like he’s thinking too much on that end because his rotations have been very slow. For example, he’s showing hard and sticking too long with the ball-handler, creating a mismatch down low .  He really needs to work on anticipating plays, rotating quickly, then recovering. The times he does make a quick help rotation he doesn’t recover.  It happens to a lot of bigs when they go to block shots, but with Meyers it’s even more pronounced.  He’ll rotate over to contest a shot, then he’ll completely remove himself from the play, not getting back into the mix.

[kobyzParticipant]

yeah, it’s looks like Meyers does lack profundity about the game, especially at the defensive end!

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