Jamaaliver wrote:The Athletic2013 NBA Re-Draft
22. Alex Len (Actual 2013 draft spot: No. 5 by Phoenix)
Len didn’t play basketball until his teenage years in Ukraine, but developed quickly from there and earned himself a scholarship to Maryland. [H]is overall performance in regard to consistency still left something to be desired...teams evaluated Len based off of what he could be instead of what he was. Phoenix took the plunge at No. 5, but if they hadn’t, another team certainly would have in the top-10.
During his five years in Phoenix, Len was a part-time starter who never really developed beyond that. He was genuinely very underrated with the Hawks last year where he averaged 11 points and 5.5 rebounds with the Hawks, and will enter this season as the team’s starting center after Dedmon departed in the offseason. In the team’s final 19 games of the season, he averaged 15.6 points and 5.9 rebounds in just over 24 minutes a night, with the biggest revelation being that he can knock down the 3 at a high clip. He hit 40 percent of those five attempts he took per game during that stretch. Given that he hasn’t been a successful piece of anything resembling a good team yet, it’s hard to put him much higher than this. But if there’s one player I’d bet on to take a leap if we were to do this exercise a year from now, Len would probably be it. He seems to have finally come into his own, and is in a terrific spot in Atlanta.
If he starts, 15 and 7 is his low ball numbers. Len is about to get a really nice pay day provided his numbers do not drop this season. 2020 is a weak free agent class and this is a perfect storm for him to get paid. I am not sure we will hold on to him; but losing him will be a bummer.
Maybe he gives us a discount since we gave him the best chance; but with his youth and young legs, I can see him getting slightly more than Dedmon's 13.3 million a year. Say in the neighborhood of 15 million a year starting.
