The gulf between "not playing" and "can't play" can be vast, and it has swallowed the early stages of TJ Leaf's NBA career at times.
Expectations tend to run high for first-round draft picks, given the amount of publicity that arrives with the honor and the limited patience awarded to them, no matter how young they might be. Never mind that Leaf, in his second season with the Pacers, is 13 days younger than Indiana University senior Juwan Morgan and 20 days younger than Purdue senior Ryan Cline, and would be wrapping up his junior season at UCLA if he had not entered the draft.