Now that we are drafted 8th or 9th people should get used to the idea of picking any of say 10 players. The "tiers" break down and some of the best picks have been teams being creative, such as Utah and Indiana grabbing Gordon Hayward and Paul George in their year. Nobody should be written off on the basis of reptuation or where they played.
I will not try and convince people to believe Meyers is the 2nd or 3rd best prospect in this draft like I do, but rather to consider him at 8th or 9th when the talent pool is much smaller, when people are giving up on the chance of drafting an all-star talent. My case:
- With two legitimate 7 footers, we would be building BIG. You win in the trees, and we would have trees. I believe both players could conceviably guard PFs, with Meyers likely being the PF and Jval the C offensively. Both players would play above the rim on both ends, blocking shots and releasing efficient shots at a high elevation offensively. This would give us a potentially unique and valuable combination that screams UPSIDE.
- Meyers' flaws statistically are overstated. For DX 1st round prospects his 23.9 PER ranks 12th, ahead of Beal, Lamb, Drummond, PJIII, Barnes, Marshall, Rivers, among players with a lotto chance, and this is as a big man playing with horrible guards, and being doubled teamed quite a bit. He is 2nd in 2P% and 5th in TS%, 13th in FT/FGA. Leonard ranks 1st among Cs for Ast/TO ratio (2nd among DX's top 100 behind Henry Sims) and is a noted passer. His rebounding and blocked shots are his biggest weakness (10.4 rebs and 2.4 blks per 40, low for Cs), but with his physical profile he should have potential there. He is not an ultra dominant college player but many succesful NBAers haven't been. Leonard had a weak college season like Jeremy Lamb had a weak college season. For one thing it wasn't weak as he was still by far the best player on his team, and if you like his skillset enough it shouldn't matter.
Finally, take the time to watch this video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK7K2aYpoKI[/youtube]
This video shows a pretty decent mix of his tools. He hits some very good looking turnaround shots, has some blocks, gets up on dunks, makes some nice passes. Here is another video showing exclusively his scoring skillset
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLiYEIaLcSE[/youtube]
He reminds me a lot of a more athletic/jacked Valanciunas offensively, with elite hands and efficiency and both players liking those hookshots. Leonard looks better in the post and also hits those midrange shots in the way we expect Valanciunas can learn to but don't know about yet. I consider Leonard to be the better offensive prospect outright, while Valanciunas has him in rebounding and likely defensive aggressiveness.
As for his current ranking (Ford 17, 15 DX), don't worry about whether that'd make this a reach - athleticism, big men and the workout process go together extremely well. I would bet on him being 3-5 spots behind us at most and not being passed on by Detroit, Milwaukee, Portland, New Orleans' 2nd pick and Houston as all those teams have center minutes to give.
IMO taking Leonard at 8th/9th would give us a player with a rare combination of physical tools (7 foot+, athletic, strong frame) and skill (great hands and developing range) and would give us a potentially exciting "twin towers" frontcourt that could defend while being efficient on the other end
