Meyers Leonard (PF/C, POR) - Waiver Wire Pickups

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OWNED: 30.5% of ESPN Fantasy Basketball Leagues

ANALYSIS: Meyers Leonard has been a pretty hot name this off season in the fantasy basketball world, but it looks like a lot of owners got cold feet when it came to actually drafting him. I actually own him in the RotoBaller Writer’s Fantasy Basketball League (RWFBL going forward) and drafted him in the 9th Round.

His competition in the front court is Mason Plumlee, Chris Kaman, Ed Davis, Noah Vonleh, and Cliff Alexander. Leonard is far and away the most versatile and skilled of those bigs, and has the most upside; unless you’re really high on Noah Vonleh (Guilty). Although a few years from now we may laugh that Meyers Leonard was keeping Noah Vonleh on the bench, for now that’s a reality, and Leonard will have plenty of opportunity to keep it that way.

Leonard’s out of position statistics really push him into fantasy relevance. I expect Leonard to sniff two 3PM a game this year. Using last year’s numbers as a baseline, he would be the only player with center eligibility to come close to that. Last year, Chris Bosh was the leader with 1.4 3PM per game.

On top of that, Leonard may be a sneaky source of rebounds. I almost didn’t believe this when I read it, but in 15.4 minutes per game last year, Leonard managed to snag 4.5 rebounds a game. If we extrapolate that to a per 32 minute basis (conservatively what he’ll average) were looking at close to 10 rebounds a game. Now I’m not guaranteeing Leonard averages a double double this year, well maybe I am, but he’ll be damn close, and you’ll be very sad you didn’t pick him up when you had the opportunity.