TJ Leaf played serious minutes – and seriously looked good in them
With Thad Young mending a foot injury, Nate McMillan decided to boost TJ Leaf into the starting lineup for yesterday’s game, providing the sophomore some much-needed minutes as he attempts to carve out consistent minutes for himself this season. Last year didn’t bode as well as it could’ve for the No. 18 pick: while his shooting was fortunately on point (43% on 42 total three-point attempts), he couldn’t keep up with game speed on the court, especially on the defensive end. Eventually, he was phased out of the rotation.
His performance against the Rockets was a welcome change, and you don’t need to dig into any advanced analytics to make a case for him: 13 points on 6-12 from the field (1-3 from deep), 12 boards (7(!) offensive), 4 assists, a couple steals, and a block on the way to a team-high +25. And while regular season game speed is an entirely different beast from these exhibition contests, it did genuinely look like Leaf was able to keep up, at least on the offensive end.
Offensive awareness was huge for Leaf when he racked up 8 boards a game during his freshman year at UCLA. He has the size and pure instinct to get rebounds, but last season it just didn’t come together, finishing ninth on the Pacers in boards per 36 minutes. That won’t fly if Leaf wants to be a part of the Pacers future.
Luckily, we saw the exact change Leaf needs to make in full display last night:
The Indiana Pacers first possession of 2018-19: Myles Turner blowing by guys: pic.twitter.com/t2owRTwfZO
— Tony East (@TonyREast) October 5, 2018
It took one possession. Leaf is the only player on the court that seemed even halfway prepared for Myles to whiff that layup, and he was rewarded with an easy putback layup. Just having that awareness and being willing to put the extra effort in on plays like that will go a long way for Leaf, and we saw plenty of it on Thursday: that exact play happened three times throughout the night, and there were a couple other occasions where TJ got the offensive board but missed the second chance layup.
He showed a lot of growth offensively during the game, including one instance where he made a great read on a post-up early in the third quarter:
TJ Leaf... creating a shot? This is solid post work from him: pic.twitter.com/T6L1UuEZ4D
— Tony East (@TonyREast) October 5, 2018
Leaf still probably shouldn’t be posting up in the first place. The play starts with him gaining little leverage on the smaller James Ennis III, with a right-shoulder move being blocked with little difficulty. That left Leaf stranded in the paint. Realizing Leaf is stuck, Marquesse Chriss comes in to apply some pressure with a double team, and last season, this almost assuredly would have resulted in Leaf turning the ball over.
Instead, he takes a second to assess the situation, recognizes that the double team has caused Chris Paul to switch onto Turner, and finds Bogdavonic wide open for an easy triple. If Leaf can continue his marksmanship along with that improved court awareness on the offensive end, he’s going to be a staple of the rotation this year.