How good is Larry Sanders

[tski1972]

from what I understand, his dogs don't like him.

[Ayt]

A serious DPOY level defender who needs to get his fouls in order to the point that he can play 32-35 MPG.

If he didn't improve at all offensively for the rest of his career I wouldn't care as long as he cut his foul rate by another 15-20%. The guy is a **** force defensively and he's somehow developed pretty good hands on the offensive end.

When Larry is on the court we have a top 3 defense.

[El Duderino]

I like Sanders, but I don't think he has much offensive potential. He's much more DeAndre Jordan on offense then Ibaka.

Obviously Sanders will never be an offensive threat in the post and his jumper needs a lot of practice, but i do think he's done a much better job this year finishing in the paint off dishes from the guards and i'm not talking about dunks.

No question his somehow turning his claws into actual hands has been a big factor since he now can catch passes thrown to him, but he has put numerous shots in the basket this year that last year i think he would have missed.

[Run-MKE 311]

He is a solid young player, still very raw on many levels, but I like the passion that he shows.

[mlloyd10]

More energetic Ervin Johnson

[blazza18]

If he were able to play 30 mins a game without fouling out consistently he'd be a threat for DPOY.

[Ayt]

I think some of you who don't give him a huge amount of props defensively should watch the games and keep a tally of every time he alters a shot (block or otherwise), negatively impacts a pick and roll with his length and quickness (hard to quantify, I know, but he's awesome at it), or does a fantastic job of forcing a poor shot by the man he's actually guarding. You should then do the same for other players around the NBA that you watch (only mentally if you are lazy) and realize the type of impact he has on a game. This type of exercise is a very basic from of scouting, but it can be very informative if you take the time to do it and do it honestly.

There are only so many possessions in a single game (between 90-100). If you compare a player to an average guy at his position defensively, a handful of extra alters, disrupted pick and roll plays, and forced poor shots when playing on the ball really adds up to a massive impact for a guy like Sanders. How many points is he taking away from an offense compared to an average center?

With the new camera technology, I bet teams can come up with finishes against percentage for bigs in the paint. I would easily bet that Sanders is top 5 (if not top 2-3) in that regard. Beyond that, he's awesome in the pick and roll (which is huge in the modern NBA game) and he's become a beast one on one. His best best games as a shot blocker have come when the man he's guarding has tried to take it to him (see the Minny trip dub, or against BOS).

[H2tObes]

Lol @ the people who called him soft and overrated!!

If he can get his fouls down, he's a perennial DPOY candidate imo. Insane how much better we are on the defensive end when he's in, and he has the stats to show it. Not to mention he is only in his 3rd year, a lot of room to grow.

Good rebounder also, 8.5 rebounds per game, while only averaging 24 mpg. That's 12.2 per 36. Just incredible length

[europa]

I think some of you who don't give him a huge amount of props defensively should watch the games and keep a tally of every time he alters a shot (block or otherwise), negatively impacts a pick and roll with his length and quickness (hard to quantify, I know, but he's awesome at it), or does a fantastic job of forcing a poor shot by the man he's actually guarding.

Well said. These attributes were evident last season too, which is one of the many reasons why it was so frustrating that Skiles wouldn't play him more.

[Ill-yasova]

I'm kinda surprised anyone would say he has trouble finishing around the hoop. That's been one of the most improved parts of his game IMO. He's done a great job finishing on the move off of face-ups all season.

Also Jbucks was the guy who roughly a month ago said Sanders should be cut because he was the worst player on the team. You might want to take his opinion with a bag of rock salt.

[JBucks]

I'm kinda surprised anyone would say he has trouble finishing around the hoop. That's been one of the most improved parts of his game IMO. He's done a great job finishing on the move off of face-ups all season.

Also Jbucks was the guy who roughly a month ago said Sanders should be cut because he was the worst player on the team. You might want to take his opinion with a bag of rock salt.

Ill-yasova - I actually wrote that he should be traded, not cut. In any event, I'm nowhere near as high on Sanders as most people on this board. I believe that this team is so starved for talent - especially in the frontcourt - that people put Sanders on a pedestal that only exists in Milwaukee.

[Nebula1]

There was a dude here with a tv showing the larry sanders show. I liked that show.

[blazza18]

What is Sanders not showing you for you not to be excited about him ? With him on the floor we are a better team.

[H2tObes]

What is Sanders not showing you for you not to be excited about him ? With him on the floor we are a better team.

Exactly, it's clear to everyone that we are better with him on the court and he has a huge impact when he's on the court.

No matter how good your team is, any fan would be more then happy that their 3rd year extremely raw prospect was suddenly showing to be a top defensive player. The pessimism on this board is unreal sometimes.

[paul]

Mega defensive impact largely because he's maybe the longest guy in the NBA in the paint - his length combined with his jumping ability makes him incredibly difficult to get over or around. His feet aren't terrible but his length gets him out of a whole bunch of rotation misses, he's certainly not what you'd call a smart defensive player or fundamentally great but his length makes up for it. He's a Marcus Camby type - not a great defender fundamentally (despite all those awards) but flashy and intimidating with his length while having similar flaws to his game. Make no mistake, Sanders will have a long career and likely win a few awards along the way that ignore his lack of fundamentals and smarts.

Offensively he's awful in pretty much every facet other than dunking and will likely continue to be, though his restraint on not shooting that jumper is a positive not a negative. He runs the floor really well for a big which should give him 4 points a night on oops and run outs while his opponent is still in his own 3 point line.

Larry barely playing for the previous two seasons really sealed my opinion on Skiles, it was idiotic and cost us getting this Larry a season earlier - as well as several wins along the way. Prior to this season I said he'd lead the league in blocks per36 and get some serious DPOY talk if Skiles would remove his head from his ass. He plays him and.... shocker.
Hopefully Skiles being sacked means Tobias has avoided the Larry treatment for another season.

Finally probably the worst boxing out big I've seen since Charlie V left town. He's a great vertical rebounder because he's so long but FFS Larry put a body on someone rather than letting them coast to the front of the rim, it costs us a couple of putbacks a game. He absolutely takes a nap in the time between the ball leaving a shooters hands and hitting the rim.

He spent his first few seasons being grossly underrated both by fans on here and by the coach, and is now getting overrated as a reaction to seemingly coming from nowhere. The truth is he's an extremely valuable and extremely flawed player - on both ends.

Oh and look after your f'ing dogs, that pissed me off.

[EzeDoesIt]

Ibaka with less offensive polish and arguably slightly more defensive impact.

I had to fix that for you; Ibaka with no offense at all and much better defensive impact.

Seriously though, Sanders is awful on offense. Poor hands, takes shots that are too tough for him, etc. He needs work, but he definitely has improved offensively since his rookie year.

He's also a monster rebounder now out of nowhere which is awesome. His defense is scary sometimes. Like, I recall our first (I believe) matchup with the Nets this year...he literally had the BKN players afraid to take shots. D-Will missed a stepback jumper over Sanders by a mile because he didn't want it to get blocked. That was an awesome game.

[milweskee]

There was a dude here with a tv showing the larry sanders show. I liked that show.

I had it since Larry's first Summer League...

[Ayt]

Comparing him to Ibaka is pointless. Ibaka has a very nice midrange jumper, but he's also much more clueless around the rim when it comes to going for blocks on the defensive side of the ball.

Sanders is a center. He has almost no game outside of the paint. The best we can hope for at this point offensively is the occasional catch outside of the paint followed by a power dribble and a layup/hook attempt.

Regardless, he's a **** monster defensively. I think he's already good enough to be considered a top 10 defensive player in the game. His impact defensively is immense. All he needs to do is cut down on his fouls.

[ampd]

Larry has shown the ability this season to hit that jumper from the free throw line when he is left open. If he just learns to take and make that thing, and then to use his quickness to occasionally convert that to an easy basket at the rim, that will be plenty of offense from him to get him 14-16 ppg at a high level of efficiency and I think he can easily develop that over the next season or so. If he could do that and continue to stay effective defensively or even improve, he can easily be an all star caliber big.

[paul]

Regardless, he's a **** monster defensively. I think he's already good enough to be considered a top 10 defensive player in the game. His impact defensively is immense. All he needs to do is cut down on his fouls.

This is where we need to be a little bit careful imo. I don't want to sound like I'm down on Larry, I'm not. I'm a big fan of his and am one of the very few that has been all the way along, but he's getting overrated defensively.

He's probably the best shotblocker in the game. He's ridiculously long, ridiculously athletic and he jumps at pretty much everything - he blocks a ton of shots and alters a heap more - but he ranges anywhere between competent and freaking awful on the floor defensively depending on his matchup.

The last 5 games his starting opponents have put up 91 points and 56 rebounds on 58% from the field. That's 18/11 at almost 60% from the field by a bunch of guys who combined average about 65 points/47 rebounds on 49% from the field - or 13/9 - so as a group his last 5 opponents are about 5 points and 2 rebounds above their season averages on 9% better from the field.

Not all of those points have been scored against Larry of course, but plenty have. Pretty sure Gortat scored 14 of his 16 on Larry tonight on 90% ish. Duncan in particular straight up made him his bitch last week, Hibbert's a 9/8 guy this season and Larry made him look like prime Shaq. That's not to diminish Larry's vertical shot blocking, but great defenders don't consistently get lit up by their direct opponents. He was all flash and no substance on D tonight, (not you) but those saying he was good tonight defensively are living by the same principles that Monta Ellis got paid by, just on the other end of the court.

He's a mega threat vertically but the spectacular blocks and alters paper over a ton of holes in his defensive game, he's nowhere near complete on that end. The good news is he should keep getting better if he doesn't get too far ahead of himself, which honestly is a bit of a worry. He got lit up by a guy averaging 11/9 tonight yet was hanging on the ring after a dunk and saluting the crowd after a block like he was prime Mutombo, needs to be a bit careful with that stuff.

The Ibaka talk shouldn't surprise, there's a guy who's spent the majority of his career grossly overrated defensively based on his shotblocking.