How good is Larry Sanders

[mcfromage]

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...

I've been rocking the original Shandling Larry Sanders show avatar for many moons.

[Nebula1]

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...

There it is. Good times and my apologies for not remembering it was you.

Larry Sanders was a machine in his first SL games.

[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...

There it is. Good times and my apologies for not remembering it was you.

Larry Sanders was a machine in his first SL games.

No problem! I'm usually lurking. My post count is terrible considering when I joined here.

Now I only chime in when Sanders has a good game. Which is more often these days...

Sanders looked like KG in that summer league though. If I remember correctly Lin was there too.

[Buck You]

He's a good energy player that any team would like to have but he's not much more than that. He'll get 8-10 ppg in his career off of garbage points and always be at the top in the league in blocked shots. The problem with him though is that he gets into foul trouble too easily and he needs to cap the emotions he shows sometimes.

[Ruben Quevedo]

As Paul said, Sanders is a great shot-blocker, but could still get better as a defender overall. For one, he still bites on every single pump fake you throw at him. He's such a quick leaper and has such great length that he doesn't have to bite on the fakes. That's one thing Bogut (far less athletic) was amazing at. And again, like Paul said, he still has to learn the nuances of rotations and help defense. I don't really know how accurate defensive rating is as a stat, but the fact that he's so high up there is a good sign considering he can still be so much better.

You also have to love his energy. He's become my favorite player. Easily.

[Bernman]

He's gotten so much better in one year at staying down as long as possible, and using his incredible length instead of almost always conceding it by jumping at opponents and flailing his arms. You have to appreciate the progress, and hope he continues to improve, but if he doesn't he's still a pretty good defender.

He's a decent rebounder now, much improved in the rebounding percentage department.

And he's become an innocuous offensive player, which is also a major improvement. He has a better understanding of who he is now, sporting a ts% of 55.5. Catches a higher percentage of balls and finishes around the hoop. Doesn't take as many jumpers, but sometimes feels compelled. It's not ideal to have a player with no effective range, but he's a center, so he can get away with it.

He's improved so much in almost every area that I don't think you can nitpick. Wait until next year to see if he's stagnated, and then you can point out his flaws. You can't ask for anything more than he's done this year, as he's helping the team because of his progress. Give it a year until we are dissatisfied he's not Garnett or even Mutumbo. He does have the size and freakish movement for a guy his size to be something considerably greater. His dexterity is pretty unusual, and he can handle the ball pretty well. I'd be interested to see what he could be if opponents didn't get to back off on his jumper. I'm not expecting him to become an offensive factor, but he's got the potential.

[Ayt]

I'd say his rebounding is better than "decent" now, Bern. He's 9th in the league in DRB% while taking himself out of position for a lot of easy boards by leading the league in BLK% by a rather large margin. He's 13th in TRB%.

Just look at the BLK% numbers.

Code: Select all

1.    Larry Sanders-MIL    9.5
2.    JaVale McGee-DEN     8.0
3.    Serge Ibaka-OKC      6.9
4.    Roy Hibbert-IND      6.9
5.    Andre Drummond-DET   6.4

And the leaders in DRB%

Code: Select all

1.    Reggie Evans-BRK       33.7
2.    Omer Asik-HOU          30.8
3.    Anderson Varejao-CLE   30.4
4.    J.J. Hickson-POR       28.5
5.    Tim Duncan-SAS         28.5
6.    Al Jefferson-UTA       27.7
7.    Carlos Boozer-CHI      27.6
8.    Nikola Vucevic-ORL     26.6
9.    Larry Sanders-MIL      26.5
10.   Dwight Howard-LAL      26.0

[Bernman]

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I was being a little conservative with my adjective. I do think the reb% #'s overrate him somewhat because he's been playing next to Udoh for much of the year. Udoh's rebound rate is horrid. It's 64th among guys classified as power forwards. There have been more rebound attempts out there for Sanders as a result. Just observing him, he wins about as many rebounding battles as one thinks a center should.

[whatthe_buck!?]

If Henson gets stronger (pretty much a given), reaches his defensive potential, and develops enough offensive game to be a productive PF, he and Sanders will be the best defensive front court in the nba one day IMO.

[H2tObes]

I don't care if Larry lets his man score 4 more points then his average, he probably prevents near 20 points a damn night with his length alone. Kid is special on the defensive end.

[jax98]

Very good. Been following him for a while. Tonight he feasted on the Bulls' dribble penetration. Wonderful athlete and a wonderful timer on blocking shots. You've got a good one there. He looks like a more explosive Taj Gibson when it comes to defense, which is definitely meant as a compliment.

[Ayt]

One of the best things about him is how often he controls his own blocks. It is not like he comes weakside, skies in the air, and swats shots out of bounds. He often doesn't even have to explode into the air to block shots because his arms are so long and his timing is great so he can still be in the position for a board or for the possession of the ball after his block.

It is remarkable to watch at times.

[emunney]

He's pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pret-ty, pret-tay, pret-tay good.

[blazza18]

I like him. Dude has something special.

[Wheeze]

Enough to win block category at h2h fantasy basketball matchup.

[LUKE23]

In the last 66 years, he has the 12th best block rate currently (for all players that played at least 20 minutes per game).

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... rder_by=ws

Right now he's at a better rate than Mutombo, Olajuwon, Robinson, Mourning, or Camby ever had, to name a few.

He's also #1 in the NBA in blocks percentage and overall defensive rating.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... aders.html

He should definitely be in the discussion for Defensive Player of the Year right now.

[drew881]

He should definitely be in the discussion for Defensive Player of the Year right now.

I think he needs a few more marquee 1 on 1 shutdown games (like he did on Garnett) to garner that praise from the rest of the league. Larry has been great at blocking anything that comes down the lane and has saved the Bucks ass. Not sure if he can win a DPOY before he can stay in a game and guard an elite PF or C for most of a game. Although I guess our gameplan relies more on a guy like Luc or Ersan to play the more talented man a lot of times so that Larry can rove around and block shots without leaving one of the best men on the floor open.

[emunney]

Camby won it without doing that, but Camby won it the year he won his third blocks title (so he had accumulated his reputation). I think minutes are going to hold Larry back. He's still basically a part time player. If he can get closer to 30mpg and keep up his block rates, and the Bucks are over .500, he'll probably at least get some votes and likely a defensive team nod, even if it's only 2nd team. Particularly with Dwight's situation.

[drew881]

I guess Lebron, I never foul, James will be in the mix no matter what.

[europa]

Enough to win block category at h2h fantasy basketball matchup.

I picked Larry up early in the season. I've been very happy with the results.