Can Portland Trail Blazers center Meyers Leonard build on last year's success?
Meyers Leonard exceeded all expectations for the Portland Trail Blazers last season, especially in the postseason. Playing 106 minutes before Portland was eliminated by the Memphis Grizzlies, the 7'1" center posted a 19.6 PER and .891 True Shooting percentage.
The latter number was the result of a scorching hot outside shot, which carried over from the regular season, where Leonard posted 50/40/90 shooting splits. Granted, the sample size wasn't large enough to place him beside Larry Bird and Steve Nash in the history books, but at the very least Leonard flashed real NBA value.
Now, the question is can he keep it up without LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews on board? Here's more on why Leonard may have a difficult time sustaining last season's success, per SB Nation's Blazer's Edge:
"I suspect that, at least in part, Leonard came by his staggering numbers last season because opposing teams weren't exactly hell-bent on stopping him. Last year's Blazers were obviously known for the exemplary play of their starting five, Aldridge especially, and it's unlikely that teams spent a lot of time game-planning for his backup. Especially in the regular season, there's not enough time in the day to do your homework on every single bench guy getting 15 minutes a night. The backup big men start to blur together. You never put too much time into stopping the Mike Muscalas and Anthony Tollivers and Meyers Leonards of the world. That won't be true anymore this coming season. Now, when teams come to Portland, they'll be ready for Leonard. When that happens, he may find it more difficult to repeat the stellar performance he put forth last season."
Leonard has tremendous size and athleticism. He can shoot threes. All he needs to do now is protect the rim and hoard rebounds. That happens and he's the recipient of a max contract next summer. If it doesn't, he's Spencer Hawes with a lower basketball IQ.
This season, the last of his rookie-scale contract, is the biggest of Leonard's career. Let's see what he'll do.
(h/t: Blazer's Edge)
