The Spider: Alex Len, Phoenix Suns
This is our second international player. In fact, every guy featured here grew up outside the U.S. There are plenty of young U.S.-born bigs thriving in the league — Andre Drummond, Mason Plumlee, Hassan Whiteside — but team decision-makers are kicking around theories about why so many next-generation centers are coming from overseas.
The most popular theory is the usual anti-AAU trope — the idea that U.S. bigs grow up on fast-paced AAU teams where they live out the fantasy of playing point center. Their international counterparts, meanwhile, embrace the drudgery of big-man play early — and thus master it sooner.
It’s hard to know without being plugged into the scouting pipeline full-time, but this is worth investigating if the trend continues.
Len is like a skinnier Gobert with a softer touch, and the Suns took off when Jeff Hornacek promoted Len into the starting lineup over Miles Plumlee. “That is not coincidental,” says Ryan McDonough, the team’s GM.
Len sets about 23 screens on the ball per 36 minutes, right behind Gobert, and he’s an explosive finisher when he has some space:
He has been perhaps too eager to take pick-and-pop midrange jumpers, but Len has a developing touch, and it must be hard for a young player to find the right balance in the pick-and-roll with unpredictable attack dogs like Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe, and Isaiah Thomas. They like to go around a pick one way and veer back in the opposite direction, so that Len might worry about colliding with them if he rolls straight to the basket.
Len battles on the offensive glass, and he’s good at making himself available when a teammate penetrates; he already has a nice big-to-big chemistry with Markieff Morris:
Len is mostly a mooch right now, but not every 7-footer is skilled enough to work as an NBA-level mooch.
On defense, Hornacek will leverage Len’s mobility by having him chase pick-and-rolls far from the hoop:
“It wasn’t a popular pick when we made it, but it was almost unanimous among our staff,” McDonough says. “It’s rare to see someone with that kind of mobility at that size.”
He’s not a dominant rim-protector yet, but the Suns have been stingier with Len on the floor. He’s good at ignoring misdirection to focus on the ball, and he’s a problem at the rim when he gets there on time:
The Suns envision Len becoming a more well-rounded offensive player, but they’re happy with his progress. “One thing casual observers underrate is how strong you have to be to score in the post,” McDonough says. “Alex is only 21. He’ll get stronger, and he’ll start to gain ground in the post.”
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-r ... era-skill/