The Miami Heat landed Meyers Leonard in the deal that moved Hassan Whiteside. Even on the pine at times, he was an engaged and valuable teammate.
The Miami Heat landed Meyers Leonard as apart of their deal last offseason to offload Hassan Whiteside‘s final year of his contract. Where getting away from the disgruntled big man would have been more than enough to get that deal done, the fact that they were able to land another big man in return made that deal even sweeter.
Although Leonard isn’t a true or traditional shot-blocker for someone of his size and length, he did offer a slight bit of rim protection at times while in the game. Let’s be clear, did he offer as much as he could or should have, by no means, but he did offer a bit.
Where Meyers really shined was his ability to stretch the floor. While he led the league in shooting percentage from deep at the beginning of the season, he eventually fell off of the top after missing time with an injury.
The Miami Heat landed Meyers Leonard in the Whiteside deal, but how’d he grade across the season?
Even still though, Leonard was capable of knocking down a shot from the outside. Not only was this good as far as the scoreboard goes, but it was also good for the rest of his teammates and their ability to find a shot.
With Leonard knocking down the deep ball the way that he does, then that means that the big man that is most likely guarding him will have to get out there to cover him. That inevitably leaves the paint and rim wide open to be attacked.
Here is Leonard’s grade for the year.
B+
He earned the “B+” here because although he was good for Miami at times, you would have liked a little more rim protection and instilling of fear in the paint and at the rim. He just couldn’t offer much of that at all or for sustained periods of time.
He was also one of the best bench guys in the league though. In the bubble, it was a well-known fact that even though he didn’t see the floor as much as he might have wanted to, Leonard was going to support his teammates.
He was constantly one of the most vocal guys on that Miami Heat bench. Here is his superlative.
The Seven-footer most likely to pull-up from 35 in your face
Meyers is a free agent at the moment and cites playing time as his number one focus moving forward. That likely won’t be in Miami, but we wish him luck and hey, who knows? He might return to South Beach.