Alex Sarr

[payitforward]

LendebOrg was one of my faves in the last draft, but he went back to school to get NIL $$.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I expect that he will put up huge numbers at Michigan, a B1G school. As a result, Yaxel Lendeburg will move up into the lottery.

I think he's the ideal frontcourt partner for Alex. Lendeburg rebounds well, and he gets a ton of stocks.

[payitforward]

"Dear Ken,

My Mother requests, modestly but sincerely, that you spell my name with an "O" not a "U" in the final syllable.

Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely,

Yaxel"

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Yaxel Lendenborg

LENDENBORG

(Thank you, payitforward, for that correction.)

Ia your mom single? My sons think I'm a great Dad FWIW.

[PaulinVA]

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[TheBlackCzar]

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You'd almost forget he's only 20...
If these problems persist when he's 23-24 and he doesn't improve otherwise, then we can be mad, but so far he's progressing nicely....
He just has to grow up and improve his consistency.....
Once he does that we have a franchise cornerstone.....

[doclinkin]

You'd almost forget he's only 20...
If these problems persist when he's 23-24 and he doesn't improve otherwise, then we can be mad, but so far he's progressing nicely....
He just has to grow up and improve his consistency.....
Once he does that we have a franchise cornerstone.....

He’s still not a proficient rebounder and I think never will be. That part is more about desire and instinct than size, as demonstrated by Bub who was often the shortest player in the game but had more boards than anyone on either team. That and hands, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a player’s hands improve.

I’d love to see Sarr working with a Big Man coach, his technique could improve and offensive skill added. I just expect we will have to rely on other players to pick up the slack on this job.

Without the inclination and ability to anchor the middle I don’t see Sarr as being hugely impactful, but more of a supersized role player. A perimeter defender, switchable and huge. Weak side shot blocker. Face up big. Not a Wemby type but at least the sort of guy who can match up on the Wemby/ Chet/ Zinger types. Useful to have on your team. A 3 & D giant.

I’m still of the mind that we need some muscle up front who can play next to him. Honestly falling out of the top lotto slots and being forced to pick the better Boozer brother might be a blessing. Cam Boozer is solid as they come. A BBIQ big who just steadily gets better with a frame to add beef. Already proficient in the savvy big man skills that take a while to develop: screening, high post passing, pick and roll play.

I’m super curious to see how Sorber and Chet work together in OKC. An embarrassment of riches. If that duo clicks I think other teams will look to this as a model. Unicorn plus monster as the front court metagame that other players have to solve. Reduces wear and tear on the rangy skinny skilled bigs. Lets you go big without losing skill.

[DCZards]

Yes, in order to fully unleash Sarr’s skillset it’s best that he’s teamed with a beefy inside presence, which is what OKC did by adding Hartenstein to play alongside Chet.

Sarr is likely to never be a banger on the inside or a player who can be counted on to patrol the paint defensively or consistently pull down double figure rebounds.

(OTOH, Sarr did average almost 9 rebs per 36. Not bad for a skinny, raw 19 yr old.)

However, with his rare athleticism for a 7 footer, his ability to guard 3-4 positions, and his passing and ball handling I think Sarr will eventually become more than just a “supersized role player.” Maybe not a star but he’ll be a highly impactful player.

[doclinkin]

However, with his rare athleticism for a 7 footer, his ability to guard 3-4 positions, and his passing and ball handling I think Sarr will eventually become more than just a “supersized role player.” Maybe not a star but he’ll be a highly impactful player.

Ok. Elite role player.

A perimeter defender, help defender, offensive facilitator who mostly hits outside shots is a role player. You can swing the ball away from them on defense in a way that you can’t if they are stalking the paint.

Adding strength and finishing moves will help. The ability to handle is nice but if the drives mostly end up in passes then it’s harder to force your will on the game. If so then he can creep up into unicorn territory, high usage multi level attack.

[DCZards]

However, with his rare athleticism for a 7 footer, his ability to guard 3-4 positions, and his passing and ball handling I think Sarr will eventually become more than just a “supersized role player.” Maybe not a star but he’ll be a highly impactful player.

Ok. Elite role player.

A perimeter defender, help defender, offensive facilitator who mostly hits outside shots is a role player. You can swing the ball away from them on defense in a way that you can’t if they are stalking the paint.

There are a lot of excellent defenders and offensive facilitators who mostly hit outside shots but don’t stalk the paint. Some of them are all-stars.

You seem to expect and want Sarr to be a traditional center. He’s not.

[nate33]

I still think he will be mostly a full time center by the time he is 23. He may play some stints at PF in certain matchups, but 80% of his minutes will be at center. He'll always be a below average rebounder, but the issue won't make him unplayable or anything. He'll be like a more defensively switchable Myles Turner. Turner averaged 8.5 rebounds per 36 for his career and nobody thinks he is a bad center. He has consistently been a top 8-12 center for most of his career.

This year, Sarr should play exclusively center so we get outrebounded and lose games.

I agree that we should still acquire a beefy 5 next year (when we want to win) to help Sarr against certain matchups, particularly when he is in his early 20's and hasn't yet filled out. But I wouldn't do so with the expectation that Sarr will play heavy minutes at the 4 for most of his career.

It'll probably be something like JJJ's progression in Memphis. When JJJ was 22, he split his PF and C minutes evenly: 1094 at PF, and 1034 at center. At age 23, he played 398 minutes alongside Adams as the nominal "PF" and he played 1366 minutes at center. When he was 24, he played 430 minutes at PF (alongside Biyombo) and 1696 minutes at center.

[payitforward]

JJJ is a good case for your side of our little quasi-dispute, nate. He's really never put up good numbers, but everybody rates him highly. &, I take it, a large part of that is based on his elite defense.

That said, though he's never been a particularly efficient scorer, JJJ has never approached the awful results Alex posted this year! A 48.2% TS% is pretty much unheard of for a big, even a rookie. Whether at the 4 or the 5. It's scary bad! Not to mention his 45.4% on 2-point attempts.

In every other way, Alex was solid, especially for a rookie. But, all the same, wow....

[DCZards]

Nate, you may be right that Sarr will ultimately be much more of a C than a PF. Turner and JJJ are also often the Sarr comps that come to mind for me.

I’m not sure though that Sarr has the body type to put on the muscle and bulk that Turner and JJJ have. Sarr reminds me more of Mobley physically, who is more of a PF than a center.

[doclinkin]

However, with his rare athleticism for a 7 footer, his ability to guard 3-4 positions, and his passing and ball handling I think Sarr will eventually become more than just a “supersized role player.” Maybe not a star but he’ll be a highly impactful player.

Ok. Elite role player.

A perimeter defender, help defender, offensive facilitator who mostly hits outside shots is a role player. You can swing the ball away from them on defense in a way that you can’t if they are stalking the paint.

There are a lot of excellent defenders and offensive facilitators who mostly hit outside shots but don’t stalk the paint. Some of them are all-stars.

You seem to expect and want Sarr to be a traditional center. He’s not.

I don’t. I see him as what he tends to like to play as: a giant wing. I think his general disinclination to mix it up on the interior won’t necessarily change with his size, and thus on a winning team he’d help us more with the thing he does remarkably well instead of trying to force him into a role where he’s underwhelming.

I actually agree with you and disagree with nate. I don’t think he’s best as a center. In this way I temper my expectations for him until he shows otherwise. In my read Sarr would do best if he had a forceful player next to him in the front court that he could feed with those passes off the short roll.

Ok if Sarr shows better aggression in finishing instead of lofting floaters or pulling up into a fadey on those drives then it changes the assessment. But I don’t think necessarily that strength is what will change that. But mindset. Kyshawn is smaller and slimmer and happy to bang. Champagnie is 6’6” and plays bigger.

Sarr has been ~7 feet since he was 16 and playing for Real Madrid against far shorter players. His dad and older brother are pros. If he wanted to learn inside play he had the opportunity to do it. Wemby has been skinnier but clearly studies the low post game. Sarr hasn’t, but I’m okay with that.

Even without that he can be what I said. Elite. In his role. Defense. Forcing teams to send their tall players to guard him. Stretching the court. Facilitating on offense. Feeding the lob.

Way I see it as a giant 3/4 Sarr can have a better game effect than if he’s thought of as a high usage offensive star. Or as the interior keystone defender.

It’s why I said I want him first to work on actually hitting the threes he takes. Before I ask him to learn anything on the inside. Frankly even there I’d rather him learn a hook shot or bank shot instead of forcing it in against the bigs.

Reading back I think I was misread as saying he won’t be impactful at all. Not what I meant. I’m saying his role is NOT as a traditional 5 but as a giant glue guy. A Wemby stopper. A 3rd option scorer maybe. Facilitator. Mismatch on the outside against slower bigs. And if his shot improves then a court stretching option who makes other players better.

That’s a useful player even if you’re not funneling the plays through him ala Jokic or expecting him to occupy the paint as your last line of defense.

Could be wrong. I’m enjoying seeing his Euro play. There’s flashes even while he’s still in the periphery of the action more than I’d expect as the true 7 footer on the team.

[nate33]

The bottom line is that Sarr isn't skilled enough to play power forward - not unless he is paired with an extremely high-skill center. If we had Jokic, then, sure, Sarr could be a jumbo Aaron Gordon. But Jokics are rare. Most centers are just space eating goons like Hartenstein, Capela, or Poeltl. Pairing Sarr with a guy like that would make our half-court offense pretty miserable. I'd much rather have Kyshawn George playing PF alongside Poeltl.

Also, I think Sarr would lose his offensive advantages if he played PF. Right now, Sarr can out-quick centers, and with just a little more development, should be able to attack centers with a slashing drive and finish at the rim or draw fouls. But if Sarr is being guarded by a forward, he won't be able to out-quick them and instead will have to go to fadeaways or that spin-move jump-hook, and that's not an efficient shot.

Finally, I think you guys are discounting the extent to which he will fill out as he matures. He has much broader shoulders than Mobley and he has already put on a substantial amount of muscle. That also suggests that he understands that center is the position where he is a difference-maker.

[tontoz]

I'm with Doc here. I think Sarr is fine playing most of his time at the 4. Prior to the draft i wasn't sold on his shot so i thought he might be the bad kind of tweener, not physical enough to play C but not skilled enough to play 4. After watching him for a full season i am fairly confident that he will be an average to above average shooter from 3, and with his height it will be tough for defenders to contest his shot. If they run out at him he is certainly skilled enough to attack closouts.

Obviously he needs to get better finishing inside but that will be the case regardless of what position he plays.

[dckingsfan]

Really good discussion - it will be interesting to see how he develops, how the coaching staff utilizes him and who the FO brings in around him.

Part of this will be on Sarr, part on the coaching staff and part on the FO.

[payitforward]

A fair bit of our commentary on Alex reduces to this: "If he improves, he'll be better."

This is true.

[doclinkin]

A fair bit of our commentary on Alex reduces to this: "If he improves, he'll be better."

This is true.

As it is every time you note it

I think what we are discussing is the *ways* we think he’s likely to get better. Unless you think a 20 yr old kid will stay static. Then we can lump you in with leswiz as a stubborn doubter.

It is common that players become better shooters from outside.

It is a near certainty that Sarr will grow stronger with weight room work and maturity.

It’s less common that a sub par rebounder becomes a proficient one.

Offensive low post skills do develop over time but often they require specialized training. Reps and practice against other competent Bigs. But added strength will help a player finish in traffic. Learning that the ball will go in even if you get bumped may give confidence to simply go up strong and not shy away from contact.

Also while we are executing cliches and platitudes: “nothing succeeds like success”. I think these FIBA games are ideal for our young players to improve. In part because they are low stakes but high excitement. National pride matters but our young pups aren’t playing for a contract, theres not an Olympic level of eyeballs on them, no massive monetary reward, slightly less fierce competition than the NBA playoffs.

However if Sarr crushes a dunk in front of a crowd in a playoff atmosphere he gets the reward of a highly charged crowd of partisans losing their collective shxt over what they saw in a way that you don’t get in a random home game in February.

You get that instant adrenaline rush of ‘do it like that. That was good’. That feeds the demon of desire and rewards a player for the work in the weight room. This is why you hear “first you win, then you get good”. Because players who taste success at the highest level are willing to sacrifice so much more to get back to there.

Bilal. Sarr. Vuk. George. Maybe eventually Riley. The fact that our front office picks international players means we have built in year round training camp. And players who might get exhausted by 50+ losses a year get a shot of endorphins and a reminder they kinda can do this thing. They know how to play. They like this game.

Savvy savvy strategic at work here. And as a Wiz fan yeah it’s nice to have something to talk about other than saying the same old thing .

[dckingsfan]

A fair bit of our commentary on Alex reduces to this: "If he improves, he'll be better."

This is true.

Yes. And.

Which aspects of his game will improve. Given the improvements, can he play PF or only C.

How will the coaching staff utilize Sarr to help his development in certain areas.

Who will the FO add around Sarr and will that cover any shortcomings that remain.

It really is an interesting multi-variable discussion, no?

Edit: missed doc's reply. Probably some overlap there...