B. Patrick
As a basketball fan, I have always had a love for the lesser known, obscure and/or underappreciated. At school, when most kids were wearing Penny Hardaway, Shaquille O’Neal or Michael Jordan jerseys, I was wearing Bobby Hurley, Derek Harper and Dino Radja.
This is my open tribute to the lesser known players in today’s game. This is Spotted on the Pine.
JON LEUER
Name: Jon Leuer
Team: Memphis Grizzlies
Jersey Number: 30
Rookie Year: 2011-12
Drafted: 2nd round – 40th overall (2011)
College: Wisconsin
Twitter: @JLeu30
I think the majority of the human race has their growth spurt during their teen years. I always am fascinated by some of the spurts you hear of with pro athletes. When he was drafted 1st overall in the 2012 NBA Draft, people were making a big deal about how Anthony Davis was the little kid shooting threes in junior high and grew from 6’0” to 6’10” over the course of his high school career.
While this was highlighted for Davis, a player touted to be a future All-Star before ever setting foot in the NBA, a player in the previous draft class had the same story.
Jon Leuer.
Jon Leuer was born in Long Lake, Minnesota in 1989 and attend Long Lake’s Orono High School. Entering high school as a talented guard, Leuer grew 10 inches from his freshman to senior year. With his size and talent, Leuer, living in a city with a population under 2,000 was ranked the 82nd best college recruit in the nation in 2007.
After finishing his high school career as a Minnesota State All-Star, Leuer would enter the ranks of the Big Ten, joining the Wisconsin Badgers in Fall 2007.
While he didn’t get to start at all in his Freshman season, Jon did get playing time in 32 games. Staying relatively quiet during the non-conference games, Leuer came up big in the conference opener against the Michigan Wolverines. Leuer would rack up 25 points on 8 for 9 shooting. This would be Jon’s personal season highlight, as he was mainly in the background of a fairly deep team that included future NBA players Greg Stiemsma, Marcus Landry and Brian Butch. The Badgers would win the Big Ten tournament and make the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament but it wasn’t yet time for the talented Freshman to shine.
By his sophomore year, Leuer started to become a bigger focus with some of the older players leaving. At season’s end, Leuer would enter the starting lineup and as a member of the Academic All-Big Ten team, helped route a first round tournament upset of a #5 ranked Florida State squad lead by Toney Douglas and Soloman Alabi. Okay, Wizards player Chris Singleton was a Freshman and maybe more well-known but my love for Soloman Alabi’s name runs deep.
The Badgers would enter Leuer’s junior season with a chip on their shoulder. Out of the entire Big Ten, they were ranked #9. So they went to the Maui Invitational and beat historically solid schools in the Arizona Wildcats and the Maryland Terrapins. If that wasn’t enough to gain respect, they were supposed to be the sacrificial team to the #5 ranked Duke Blue Devils for a December ESPN game. A stacked Duke team with future pros Mason & Miles Plumlee, Nolan Smith, Lance Thomas, Kyle Singler and Brian Zoubek. What happened? Wisconsin shocked the world, won and Brian Zoubek went off and started a bakery.
Okay… I skipped a couple steps in there. Duke would still go on to win the National Title that year and Zoubek would spend training camp with New Jersey before starting a fairly successful New Jersey bakery called Dream Puffz but I’m trying to Leuer you in right now (like lure… nevermind…)
During a game where Wisconsin again was a spoiler to #4 Purdue, Jon actually broke his wrist. While breaking his wrist early in the game, Jon played 38 of 40 minutes. Once the wrist injury was discovered, he had to miss nine following games.
Playing spoiler all season, the Badgers would become victim of the Cornell miracle run of 2010 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Villanova’s coach Jay Wright had been so impressed with Leuer, he selected him for the Team USA Select team where Wright put Leuer up there with some of the bigger name college stars on the squad at the time mentioning the amazing combination of size with great passing and shooting abilities.
Going into his senior year, Sports Illustrated named Jon their Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year. Over his senior year, Leuer became the 36th Badger to reach 1,000 points, earned All-Big Ten 1st team honors and Third Team All-American honors by Fox Sports.
As the NBA draft rolled around, people noticed Leuer’s athleticism. Some critics, like Chad Ford, likened it to Luke Jackson’s impressive combine, trying to state Leuer didn’t translate his supreme athletic ability to his game. Some critics made draft comparisons to players ranging from Matt Bonner to Brian Scalabrine. I mean, fair comparisons to a 6’10” guy who pops off a screen to nail a three-pointer.
On draft night, Leuer was selected early in the second round, 40th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. Like many other second round picks that season without guaranteed contracts, Jon found himself starting his professional career overseas with Skyliners Frankfurt of Germany.
Leuer would thrive, essentially being the star of a lesser recognized German squad and do fairly well for himself in scoring and rebounding. By the time the lockout ended in Winter 2011, Leuer had an opt-out closed and signed a two-year deal with the Bucks.
Leuer started off with a bang. In the second game of the season, he was given 20 minutes and had 14 points and 8 rebounds in 20 minutes in a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Leuer would get sporadic minutes and go from barely playing to starting but he would thrive when given an opportunity to play. Looking at January 2012, he wouldn’t get playing time one night in Houston but the next game have 19 points in 19 minutes against Derrick Rose’s Bulls squad.
After a successful, yet under-recognized rookie campaign with Milwaukee, Leuer would find himself on his way out of town. The Bucks would work a big trade with the Rockets to acquire Samuel Dalembert and the 14th pick in the 2012 Draft, a pick the Bucks would use on UNC’s John Henson, for Leuer, Shaun Livingston, John Brockman and the 12th pick in the draft. Houston would draft Jeremy Lamb, who would go to Oklahoma City in the James Harden trade.
After the trade, Bucks General Manager John Hammond, no stranger to the trade market, discussed how tough it was letting Leuer leave town. He admitted that the Bucks had no intention to let him leave but his inclusion was the only way to financially make the proposed deal work.
As most remember, the Rockets made a ton of moves that off-season to start working on trying to acquire a franchise quality player and had way too many guys on their roster. Between this Milwaukee trade and the trade where Houston sent Courtney Lee to Boston, picks aside, they gave up two players and acquired six. So several of the young players on non-guaranteed money were cut, including Leuer.
Leuer didn’t last long on the waiver wire, as he was snatched up by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jon would still only get sporadic minutes with his new club. In the first 16 games of the 2012-13 season, Jon would only play in five. But around three of those games would be in the twenty-minute range.
By December, the club decided have the former Wisconsin Wonder visit their D-League affiliate the Canton Charge. So remember that whole recurring theme about playing time equals production with Leuer? He would average 20.3 points and 12.3 rebounds in six games with the Charge.
The stint would get short when famed vending machine bully Luke Walton had to leave the team for personal matters. For about a month, Jon’s return would consist of mostly filling the Cleveland bench. The Cavaliers would see an opportunity to shake up their roster and deal Jon to Memphis.
As Memphis was having a solid season, they were the focus of a midseason salary dump that had players uncertain and coach Lionel Hollins publicly displeased. In a precursor to the Rudy Gay to Toronto deal, the Grizzlies sent Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington, Josh Selby and a future 1st round pick to Cleveland for simply Jon Leuer.
Jon would join a very competitive Grizzlies squad and once again, not get a high amount of minutes. On April 9th, Leuer would have his best game in Memphis – 11 point and 5 rebounds in twelve minutes of play.
The Grizzlies would work fast in retaining their free agents in 2013 free agency and while signing defensive stud Tony Allen to a 4-year deal to come back to Memphis, the Grizz also brought back Leuer. On July 3rd, Jon inked a three year, $3 million dollar deal to come back to the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies will try to ride their Western Conference Finals appearance momentum into the 2013-14 season. As their recent playoff nemesis the Clippers try to build another super team, can a team with the heart of the Grizzlies take an under-utilized stud like Jon Leuer and after a full training camp make him an effective part of adding more to their win tally?
We’ll find out in a few months!
