The Portland Trail Blazers lost LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency, so the team is now Damien Lillard's moving forward. Lillard has proven to be a great NBA player, but in order to bring the Blazers back to the playoffs, he is going to need help from a lot of his teammates. One of the guys the Blazers will need to step up is Meyers Leonard, the fourth year center out of Illinois who has reportedly been working on his post-game, according to Sirius XM NBA Radio.
Last season, the Blazers had Robin Lopez as their starting center alongside Aldridge, but this season they will have an entirely different starting frontcourt. Leonard is the expected starter at center, although he has only started 16 games in his three-year career. In his first three seasons, Leonard didn't get much playing time as the Blazers were a very good team and contenders in the Western Conference, this year though they are extremely young and will need guys like Leonard to take a major step forward.
Behind Leonard on the depth chart is Mason Plumlee, who the Blazers acquired in an offseason trade, and Chris Kaman. Kaman isn't expected to get much of any playing time this season, but Plumlee is a threat to Leonard as a starter. This offseason Leonard has been working on his post moves, as he believes opposing teams will have him more heavily scouted. A year ago, the 7-foot-1 center did a lot of damage from beyond the arc, making 42 percent of his triples, but this season he expects teams to run him off the three point line.
Leonard has been a big time prospect since he was recruited by Illinois out of college and ended up being the 11th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. In his three seasons so far, Leonard has averaged 4.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in just 14.7 minutes per game. If you extrapolate those numbers to 36 minutes per game, he would be close to averaging a double-double, so Leonard has a chance to make a big impact this year in a bigger role. If Leonard can show in training camp that his post-game has improved, he will likely be the starting center for the Trail Blazers when the season begins.
