Kennedy Meeks is proving he belongs on 2017 draft boards

North Carolina lists Kennedy Meeks’ at 6-foot-10, 260 pounds but neither number may be accurate. Regardless of whether the numbers are true, Kennedy Meeks is a different 260 pounds than he was four years ago. He is a better, and stronger, basketball player. He is also a player whose combination of height and girth has always inspired a great deal of comparisons. Some of these, like Robert Traylor, are somewhat accurate and fair, while others, like the ones mentioning Hall of Famer Wes Unseld, are not. And what all of these comparisons aim to do is reach for a firm conclusion on a player who, if anything, has always been a work in progress.

On November 23, North Carolina defeated Wisconsin in the championship game of the Maui Invitational, as senior Kennedy Meeks scored 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting. In addition to his efficient scoring night, he also suctioned a career-high 16 rebounds. The win prompted a lot of college basketball’s talking heads, Jay Bilas among them, to wonder whether or not the Tar Heels are every bit as good as Kentucky and Duke. The indelible image of the game was Kennedy Meeks standing on the baseline, making a right triangle out of his arm and neck, flexing his bicep in the shape of a keystone.

A week later, however, the Heels looked much more vulnerable in a game against Indiana. Inside the less than hospitable confines of Assembly Hall, there was no flexing by Meeks, despite his scoring 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds. You see, Meeks, while almost always efficient, is not always imposing. And, because of that waxing and waning, his effort is often the fulcrum upon which his team’s success teeters.

In the win against Wisconsin, he struck what would be an iconic pose if he were perhaps two inches taller or added two inches to his vertical. With the first name of a president and a last name given to passivity, this power forward from Charlotte has always been a quasi-promise of talent and grit.

None of this is to say Kennedy Meeks has not been a good college basketball player. He has. But, despite having hips so wide they could just as easily birth a water buffalo as box out an opponent, he still hasn’t had his DeJuan Blair breaks Hasheem Thabeet over the camel’s back moment.

In his freshman year, he earned ACC All-Freshman team honors, starting 17 games and averaging an impressive 15 rebounds per 40 minutes. In his sophomore season, he led the team in blocks while continuing to excel at rebounding and scoring efficiency. In his junior year, he accomplished more of the same, but took a backseat to the brushfire that was Brice Johnson’s senior year and the late season emergence of microwave Isaiah Hicks. In the flash of their athleticism, Meeks’ more traditional skill set often appeared obdurately dim.

And this is the dilemma NBA teams will face on draft day when, and if, they consider calling his name.

Whatever potential still rests in Meeks’ body will be hard-earned. His NBA-readiness does not depend on mastering a particular system or adding range to his jumpshot. Instead, he must master the near impossible art of moving his body in ways it has so far refused.

Throughout his career at North Carolina, Roy Williams has always recruited big men in the mold of Meeks to play alongside pogo sticks like Johnson and Hicks. These post pairings are designed to have the team sprinting in track meets and, when the race slows to a plod, to fall back into a more traditional high-low system.

A player like Meeks could easily fall out of favor in such a system. But, when the game speeds up, Meeks remains relevant by controlling the boards. Moreover, he ignites the break a la a collegiate Kevin Love. Meeks is a master of the outlet pass and possesses a hidden penchant for steals. When he was still nothing more than a McDonald’s All-American and therefore a player more imagined than realized, he drew quite a few comparisons to Kevin Love on North Carolina message boards. Even if irrational, these fanbase projections longed for Meeks’ body to follow the same metamorphosis of Kevin Love’s.

While at UCLA, Love appeared somewhat like a bag of Lays potato chips and has since morphed into a Banana Republic model. But Love was always deceptively more athletic than he appeared to be at UCLA. And, as impossible as it may be to imagine him playing as he once did in Minnesota, it is equally impossible to imagine Meeks ever playing as Love does in Cleveland now.

So what does the future look like for Meeks now when such projections are based on a college career’s evidence and not a crystal ball?

While a herniated disc has prevented Meeks’ former running mate Brice Johnson from playing so far this season with the Los Angeles Clippers, players like Brandan Wright, John Henson, and Tyler Zeller have all proven themselves capable of holding down roster spots in the league, as has Tyler Hansbrough. The ability of these former Tar Heels to make a living in the league means Meeks will most likely receive some consideration as a possible second round pick.

However, Meeks’ skillset more closely resembles two other Carolina bigs, Sean May and Deon Thompson.

May is a Carolina legend due to his iconic play during Carolina’s run to the 2005 national title. His NBA career, though, was tragically short lived. In five years, his body’s fragile foundations limited him to only 119 games, as if the magic required for said title run sapped his vitality. What people often forget about May is he only averaged 15.8 points per game and 10 rebounds while in college. He was good, but he didn’t play every month like it was March.

While Meeks’ career numbers at Carolina will not match May’s, at 13.3 points per game and 10.4 rebounds, his senior year averages are within the vicinity of the former Tar Heel great. And, more importantly, under the tutelage of May, Meeks has shown early signs this season he is abandoning ill-fated fadaways, and is instead opting to play with the low post assertiveness which once made his mentor such an effective college scorer.

If Meeks somehow manages to go full icon in conference play or during a Final Four run, he could find himself with at least an invitation to one of the NBA’s summer leagues, where his success will hinge on the moves borrowed from May. If that doesn’t happen, he will most likely walk in the footsteps of former Heel and Hansbrough running mate, Deon Thompson, who has played overseas in both Greece and Germany.

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Something else Meeks has going for him is his likability. He is a constant spokesman for team chemistry. As early as the 2013 McDonald’s All-American game, he has been conducting interviews, making jokes, and weaving the webs of camaraderie between his Carolina teammates and the players of other schools. The kid clearly eats and sleeps basketball. Those skills will serve him on courts the world over, maybe even beyond his playing days. In this way, he is a bit like an unassuming kid in a Stephen Spielberg film.

In a comparison just as unfair as any other, he is exactly the grounded kind of kid who could lead a bunch of lost boys in the absence of a more likely hero who crows and flies and has no rules to follow.

When Meeks appeared in that high school all-star game, it was alongside the likes of Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Aaron Gordon, Aaron and Andrew Harrison, Bobby Portis, Noah Vonleh and others who have since departed the college game. If his name is among those not called in the spring, one would expect Kennedy Meeks to handle it just as he did in the past, by getting better wherever two nets hang ninety feet apart.

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