GMATCallahan wrote:nevetsov wrote:Lopez is only now having a solid season. How long has he been in the league? We were saying the exact same kinds of things about him after his 3rd season. Only he hadn't shown any of the flashes Len has, and he was an appalling rebounder and average shot blocker.
Give him time, Len is probably already a top 5 Suns centre of all time. We should be thankful we actually have big defensive bodies these days (albeit a decade or two too late).
I would not go that far ... maybe top five from the last fifteen seasons.
I do not know that he would have greatly helped the Suns from ten or twenty years ago, either—Len is too raw and inconsistent and still learning how to play. You could not have had a guy with his youth and inexperience out there with Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson, hesitating on wide-open jumpers that he could otherwise hit and awkwardly forcing shots in traffic at other times. That kind of player would have generally been sitting on the end of the bench on those teams. (Of course, Barkley and Johnson would have made the game easier for Len, too.) Mike D'Antoni would have frowned upon that kind of thing, also, and he would not have played Len with Amar'e Stoudemire too often.
But I concur that the potential for Len to be something greater is there, if he puts his reasonable array of skills and attributes into a more consistent, efficient, cohesive package. I would be curious to see where he is at age twenty-five or twenty-six.
Just to relay a somewhat ironic anecdote pertaining to that analysis, in the fourth quarter of Game Seven of the 1995 Western Conference Semifinals versus the Rockets, with about ten and a half minutes remaining and the Suns trailing at home by two points, 84-82, Kevin Johnson drove the right baseline, dragging Hakeem Olajuwon down to the baseline and near the basket, and thus set up Phoenix's starting center, Joe Kleine, for an open jumper from the right wing, about nineteen feet out. Kleine was a thirty-three-year old veteran in his tenth season who was largely out there because of his ability to shoot jumpers from outside. He knew his role, and he had executed it very effectively during the playoffs, shooting .574 from the field, including 2-2 thus far in Game Seven. (Notably, Kleine never attempted a single free throw during the 1995 playoffs, indicating the nature of his game.)
When Kleine caught the ball and was in his shooter's crouch, Olajuwon was still about nine feet away, in the paint and near the baseline. Although Olajuwon could close swaths of territory very quickly, Kleine certainly enjoyed a clean look. Mario Elie was rotating over to him from the top, but Elie was about seven inches shorter than Kleine and could not really bother his shot.
Kleine, however, hesitated on this occasion and then looked to pass out to Wesley Person beyond the top of the arc (although he did not do so). When Kleine hesitated and held the ball rather than shooting it, the referees called Charles Barkley for a three-second violation in the lane, resulting in a turnover.
Bill Walton on the NBC telecast:
The play was made by K.J., and then Kleine held up. You see Scottie Pippen and the Bulls do that so much playin' with Jordan. Only make one play and then finish.
Barkley and K.J. were both upset with Kleine.
Kleine's mistake represented an exception, but it reflects the trouble that Len might have suffered playing with that team or with clubs such as the Warriors and Spurs now. High-level offenses need to flow crisply and decisively, and the current Suns are very far away from reaching that point.
