2017 Orlando Magic Draft Preview: Who is T.J. Leaf?

The Bad

While Leaf showcases a lot of offensive ability, he does not have a lot of defense to show for it. No one on UCLA really was a strong defender, actually.

But Leaf’s defensive weaknesses were very pronounced. They are central to his key weakness.

Leaf does not have a lot of bulk and will get eaten up in the post. While he has some rudimentary post moves, he is not going to be able to work his way around other players. Most of his post moves end with him taking tough shots over the defense rather than beating them to the basket.

For all of Leaf’s athleticism too, he does not use it well outside of his jumps to the rim. And even some of his leaps are not super impressive. He is athletic but not a super athlete, in the NBA sense.

His poor defense and poor lateral quickness will hurt him at the NBA level. So too will his lack of strength to defend the few post-bound power forwards. Leaf will be a non-factor defensively.

While Leaf puts up gaudy statistics, a lot of that is because of UCLA’s insane pace and offensive style. His rebound numbers look great, for example, but he posted only a 14.9 percent total rebound rate and a 19.7 percent defensive rebound rate.

Those are not great numbers for a potential rebounder. With his lack of strength, he could get pushed around on the boards and lose a lot of that benefit from his college days.

This is all to say, Leaf put up numbers in college but it is unclear how much of that translates. His shooting should translate. It usually carries over. But no one seems to be completely sure just how much of Leaf’s production will carry over.

How much of his production was part of UCLA’s system? This is always a question that comes up with college prospects from system-heavy teams. The Bruins were certainly a system-heavy team.