UCLA Basketball: 2017 NBA Draft profile – TJ Leaf
By Keir Chapman
The 2017 NBA Draft will see at least three former UCLA Basketball players taken in the first round, which includes leading scorer TJ Leaf.
The 2017 NBA Draft is going to be a huge event for the UCLA Basketball program. Last season, the Bruins had a ton of talent which led to an incredible turn around and a return to the Sweet 16.
RELATED: TJ Leaf 2016-17 highlights
One of the biggest reasons for that was freshman power forward TJ Leaf who led the Bruins in scoring in 2016-17. Go Joe Bruin takes a look at Leaf in our NBA Draft profile.
Vital Stats
| Height | Weight | Age | Hometown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6-10 | 225 | 20 | El Cajon, Calif |
Strengths
TJ Leaf is the epitome of today’s NBA big man. He is an incredibly efficient scorer from the paint and three point line.
Leaf will allow his team to thrive in the pick and roll, as his defender will have to follow him at all times, creating more space for the offense to operate. When Leaf was on the court, he produced an incredible 131.1 points per 100 possessions, good for sixth best among all division 1 power forwards.
Aside from scoring, Leaf rebounds the ball well. This is a trait not all scoring big men share, for example, Brook Lopez of the Brooklyn Nets scored 20.5 points per game with only 5.4 rebounds as a center. Leaf also helped UCLA create extra possessions, as he averaged 2.2 offensive rebounds per game. This allowed him to get the free-throw line as well, where he averaged three free throws per game.
Season Stats (per game)
| Points | Assists | Rebounds | FG% | 3FG% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16.3 | 2.4 | 8.2 | .617 | .466 | .679 |
Weaknesses
Leaf leaves a lot to be desired on the defensive side of the ball. He averaged a respectable 1.1 blocks per game with the Bruins, but his attempts to do so would often end in fouls. For the season he averaged a block to personal foul ratio of 0.44.
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UCLA only averaged 16.2 fouls per game, so Leaf’s fouling didn’t hurt the team in the long run. However, in their 84-76 loss to USC, the Bruins committed 20 fouls, four of which came from Leaf.
Another problem Leaf faces in the pros is his size. As a power forward, 6’10” is an ideal height. 225 pounds, on the other hand, is definitely undersized for his position. The solution would be to move him to small forward.
The only problem is that Leaf will be looked to to score off the dribble, an ability he flashed at times, but not consistently enough for a team to rely on.
If Leaf commits himself to gaining 10-15 pounds, he can play a similar role as Ryan Anderson does for the Houston Rockets.
Final Analysis
Leaf’s abilities to roll to the basket, shoot the 3-pointer efficiently, and occasionally score in the post and off the dribble, makes him a lottery-level talent. Questions about his defense and size, however, will likely cause him to be selected near the middle of the first round of the NBA Draft.
The Indiana Pacers pick at number 18, and could use Leaf’s scoring and rebounding skills on their bench. Indiana’s reserves averaged just 33.2 points per game, 11th lowest in the NBA. They also grabbed 14.8 rebounds per game, the eight lowest mark in the league.
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Leaf may struggle to find playing time at first, as the Pacers are a playoff team. That all may change, though, with Paul George’s apparent imminent departure. This will cause the team to enter a rebuilding mode, meaning more minutes for younger players. If that is the case, Leaf would be in the perfect position with Indiana.