776 days. That’s how long it had been since Meyers Leonard suited up in an NBA game before he signed a 10-day deal with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Leonard last played for the Miami Heat, who the Bucks played on Friday night. Milwaukee dismantled Miami 128-99. How did Leonard look on his 776-day layoff? Let us take a closer look.
Assessing Meyers Leonard’s first game with the Milwaukee Bucks
With 7:51 left in the second quarter, Meyers Leonard checked in for the first time in a Milwaukee Bucks uniform. Leonard quickly showed some flashes defensively.
He forced a traveling violation on Miami’s Bam Adebayo on his first defensive possession and played well defensively on Adebayo overall. There were a couple of moments where Adebayo took advantage, mainly dropping in floaters over him. Overall, I was impressed with how Leonard defended Adebayo.
Leonard impressed defending in the low post, but Miami attacked him in the pick-and-roll game. Jimmy Butler and Adebayo ran a lot of pick-and-roll action, and there were times when Leonard came out too far on the ball handler. That led to more favorable opportunities in the paint, particularly for Adebayo and the newly signed Cody Zeller.
Leonard, at times, looked lost on what to do on switches. Milwaukee has an advanced defensive approach especially when it comes to the bigs defending the pick-and-roll. Brook Lopez has mastered the dunker spot, and drop coverage has been a staple in Milwaukee’s defense over the past few seasons.
Asking Leonard to figure out the nuances of guarding pick-and-roll was a tall task, especially for a guy who hasn’t played in over two years. It will be interesting to see how Leonard improves defensively in his 10-day stay.
Offensively, Leonard isn’t expected to be a major weapon for Milwaukee. He can hit the occasional three as he did on Friday and get in the paint and draw fouls, but Milwaukee has too many talented offensive players for Leonard to make a sizable impact on that end.
Leonard only took three shots, one of which was a deep three with eight seconds left on the shot clock, so it’s safe to say that play won’t be run again.
This moment showed how important it is to have a short memory, Leonard was guarding the pick-and-roll and came out too far on Miami’s Victor Oladipo and Oladipo fed Cody Zeller for a 15-footer. On the other end, Leonard bounced back and hit a three to go up 95-73 with 36 seconds left in the third. It showed that Leonard found his groove as the game went on.
The play that stood out to me in Leonard’s play yesterday was his hustle. Up 126-93, Duncan Robinson stole the ball from Jevon Carter. Robinson proceeded to lose the ball, and Leonard dove onto the floor and wrestled the ball away from Robinson. This is the type of culture that Milwaukee has slowly but surely ushered in the past few seasons acquiring players who will never quit on a play.
In total, Leonard scored five points on 1-of-3 shooting. He also notched 6 rebounds and 1 steal in his 15 minutes of action.
Overall, Leonard played better than expected considering he hasn’t suited up in an NBA game in over two years. He shook off some defensive rust early, the next step is improving his pick-and-roll coverage. Other than that, he gave Milwaukee solid minutes, and his game will only improve as he plays more games for the Bucks.
It’ll be interesting to see if Meyers Leonard is on the Bucks after his 10-day contract is up.