Utah Jazz: 5 options for pick No. 24 in 2017 NBA Draft
By Adam Coffman
2. T.J. Leaf
Playing in one of the NCAA’s most exciting offenses at UCLA, freshman T.J. Leaf excelled as a souped-up, offensively inclined power forward. Taking stock of the Jazz’s collection of power forwards, particularly stretch-4s, leaves you decidedly less than excited.
The 2015 NBA Draft’s 12th overall pick Trey Lyles shot just 31 percent from deep and watched his minutes drop in a disappointing sophomore season, while free agent signee Boris Diaw began to show his age in a major way, proving to be porous defensively and shooting a horrendous 25 percent from three-point range.
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Other players who made appearances at the position, like Joel Bolomboy or Joe Johnson, can’t be counted on for long periods of time or haven’t shown enough talent at the NBA level to be relied on. The hope, should the Jazz draft him, would be that Leaf could step in fairly early and assume an important role.
On offense, Leaf can score in a variety of ways, including spacing the floor, as he shot threes at a whopping 46.6 percent clip in college (although this occurred on just 1.7 attempts per contest).
He can also post up against the right matchup, possessing decent touch and dexterity around the hoop. Strength will be an issue there and any other time he tries to play inside, as he doesn’t have the ability to finish through defenders.
UCLA ran in transition early and often, with Leaf often taking the ball up himself after a rebound. Don’t expect this to happen with the Jazz, as Quin Snyder prefers to play much more methodically. However, he can still use his handle to attack close-outs and face-ups on the perimeter.
Leaf is less mobile defensively than you’d like for a modern power forward, but shows good awareness in making up for his deficiencies. His rebounding is also a bit lacking, although his shorter 6’11” wingspan and athleticism is more to blame for this than his effort is.
His lack of positional versatility and explosiveness somewhat limits his ceiling, but Leaf could be a great find for the Jazz if he were to last until pick No. 24.