Greensboro Swarm HC Discusses Leaky Black's Development (March 24)
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00:00 Let's move on to Leakey, who, much older player than Amari and Nick,
00:06 I think a four-year player at UNC, might have the most games at UNC in history,
00:11 at the school. Look, Leakey is never going to be a guy that pops out of the box
00:16 score with his scoring or anything of that nature, but can you talk about
00:21 the kind of impact that he has with his defense, his rebounding,
00:26 his ability to pass the ball? Just talk about, like, he's the kind of a guy that
00:30 he's not gonna pop off the stats, but just the impact that he has.
00:35 Yeah, you know, I think the first thing with Leakey is he's an ultimate competitor as well.
00:40 And obviously dating back to college, like, he's played in a lot of really big,
00:45 really important games. And so the moment is never too big or too small for him.
00:49 I even think back to him getting some starting opportunity in Charlotte, right?
00:53 Like, that's obviously a full circle moment for him being a local guy,
00:57 but, like, he was ready for it, you know, because, you know, those moments are what
01:01 you prepare for your whole life, and he's obviously played in big games.
01:04 And I think you hit it on the nail. I think the one thing, and I tell Leakey this,
01:08 has to be every single day I see him. The things that he brings to the table
01:14 for us in Greensboro are gonna be the exact same things he just needs to do
01:19 at a really high level in the NBA or in Charlotte, and that is,
01:22 you mentioned it, his defense. You know, we put him on point guard sometimes.
01:27 He guards centers. Like, we put him all over the floor defensively,
01:31 and he's our, you know, he's, you know, can be our shut the water off guy.
01:36 You know, if things get going for another guy, we put him there.
01:39 His length, his athleticism. So his defense is always gonna be his calling card.
01:43 His rebounding activity is always gonna be his calling card.
01:46 You know, there should never be a game where we look and he doesn't have five,
01:49 six, seven rebounds and a couple offensive ones along with it.
01:52 You know, his activity is great. You know, those things are obviously day one.
01:58 Like, you gotta bring him every single day. And then offensively for us,
02:03 catch and shoot threes are a big piece. Like, he's your typical three and D type wing.
02:09 You know, and he's gotta be able to make catch and shoot threes.
02:12 And then, you know, the development piece for us then adds driving closeouts, right?
02:17 The ball swings to you in the corner. They're gonna run you off the line, right?
02:20 Can you take one or two dribbles, get to the paint, and finish at the rim,
02:23 or make just basic reads? You know, those are the types of things we really look at with him
02:28 and things that he brings to the table for us that help us.
02:31 You know, again, very similar to Opoku in some senses with the action creation and the connecting.
02:38 He's really good at DHOs. He's really good at screening and rolling.
02:41 He can slip out, finishing around the rim, you know, all of those things.
02:46 And you said it, right? Like, I tell him all the time, no one, for his development,
02:51 nobody sits there and looks and says, "Man, Leaky Black only scored eight points tonight."
02:56 Like, that's a problem. It's like, he's going to be the guy that has eight points,
03:01 eight rebounds, four or five assists, a couple steals a block,
03:06 and he held their best score to 14 points. You know what I mean?
03:10 That's just who he's gonna be and who we want him to be.
03:15 And just him buying into that. It's not always an easy role to buy into, but he's bought into it.
03:20 He's very aware of who he needs to be in order to make it to the next level.
03:24 And then, you know, for his development, it's just expanding on that.
03:27 Him being more comfortable in, like, team coverages and being able to execute those.
03:35 And then offensively, just the consistency. You know, he didn't take a ton of threes in college,
03:41 and now he is a perimeter-oriented guy who that's what we're relying on him to do a ton of the time.
03:47 Right? So it's a little bit of a dynamic change for him as a player,
03:52 but we are focusing on the catch and shoot threes and then, boom, catch it.
03:55 They close out. You can drive past them. And now let's get to that next layer.
03:59 So that's where his development lies. I get mad at him at least twice a game.
04:04 And I tell him this because the ball swings to him and he's wide open and he tries to drive it.
04:09 And I think that's just his natural instincts of what he's always been told to do.
04:13 And now it's like, if you catch the ball and you're open, you've got to shoot it.
04:17 And I think he was doing that early in the year and shooting it at a pretty good clip.
04:21 And it's just continuing to help him build confidence in himself as a shooter
04:25 and helping him see that for the betterment of our group and us helping our team,
04:29 like, those are shots that we want and need him to take.
04:33 I think, yeah, he's 36% from three for the season. He shot the ball okay.
04:37 I think when he's been in Charlotte as well, including having some of those game-winning free throws
04:41 in Charlotte, right, for one of those big moments, which was big for him.
04:45 I'm curious. I remember watching draft film of Brandon Miller
04:49 and there was a game where Leakey guarded Brandon extremely well.
04:53 I think it was one of Brandon Miller's worst games of the season.
04:56 Like, has that ever come up in conversation, like with Brandon, with Leakey?
05:00 Is that something they've talked about at all? Or like, I don't know.
05:04 I've always been curious about that because I remember people pointing to that game
05:08 and being like, yeah, just enough Brandon Miller's going to work in the NBA.
05:11 And I was very much on the other side of the argument of that.
05:14 But it's interesting those two kind of got reunited as Leakey Black
05:18 was the Brandon Miller stuff, right?
05:21 Oh, for sure. You know, I don't know if it's something that those two together have talked about.
05:26 I know we've talked about it and I know, obviously, Leakey has brought it up a couple of times.
05:32 But it's always fun.
05:35 And you know what we always end up saying is we got them both right.