Portland Trail Blazers: Caleb Swanigan is making a case for himself over Meyers Leonard

The Leonard fantasy doesn’t hold up…

But what the fantasy doesn’t include, and what the statistics do not show, is that Leonard can become nearly invisible on the floor when he can’t find his shot.

He has never rebounded or defended well, even with his height. So, when he isn’t hitting threes, it almost looks like he doesn’t know what to do instead.

Through five regular season games (42 minutes), Leonard has made one of his four three-point attempts, has a 32.5 turnover percentage, and has scored 10 total points.

There are two main things that Leonard has done to force himself out of Stotts’s favor. First, he began turning down open shots to barrel his way into the lane to miss contested ones. This has led to Stotts screaming at him that he’s got to take those open opportunities.

And second, Leonard recorded three fouls in three minutes against the Indiana Pacers. He committed so many fouls so quickly, that Stotts had no choice but to call up Caleb Swanigan from the bench.