stop posting such nonsense. andersen's a legit post player with a very nice turnaround jumpshot and solid low post moves. he's more like luis scola with less moves, less hustle and more shooting range than he's comparable with dirk. andersen won't be shooting 3s in the nba. he's more like brad miller - a midrange shooter that can hit the occasional 3.
good points. i think we (americans) quickly forget how physical the FIBA style ball is. i loved to watch that more physical style of play. but i think it is probably for the best that the nba doesn't allow that physical play anymore since schedule is so long.
excellent research carl. i would say, even if he is a below average rebounder (which the stats don't suggest) he is surrounded by above average rebounders in scola, landry, and hayes. his role is going to be much more prominent on the offensive end then defensively or on the boards. he will be a high post passer and shooter. like how scola worked with yao, andersen will be high post to scola's low post. OR you might see both of them work from mid range like the kings did under adelman. opening up the paint for guys like brooks, ariza, lowry, and maybe taylor to drive or cut for easy buckets. andersens rebounding will be a secondary concern to how he helps the offense flow.
US fans have no concept, knowledge, or clue at all about the game in Europe. I just take comments from American fans on the Euroleague as nationalistic and generally xenophobic and ethnocentric. Fact is from living 6 months of the year in Europe I can say that the Euroleague is about 100 times a higher level than any American says it is.
Dirk isn't around for his rebounding. Scola does, of course, get 50% of everything he chases down on the floor out of sheer hustle. We should consider ourselves lucky in DA has a quarter of the hustle he displays. As for being soft, what can we say except that we thought this about Yao, and were right for the first 2 or 3 years. The boy is young and will likely need to toughen up. Dorsey and Hayes should really find their niche playing alongside this guy, one would think. I mean come on, it's gotta be Dorsey Time, right? Great analysis. Every question I found myself postulating was immediately presented and answered. That may have been the most readable GARM post in weeks.
I haven't really seen him play other then those highlight reels where it looks like he's a rebounding machine while his numbers show he isn't. Seems to me Scola is just a lot more active in the post than Anderson. I say his rebounds will take a dip.
I think the idea of calling someone soft as in not tough (which could include many things like mental toughness and pain threshold) is often mixed up with being physically weak. WARNING: extreme example being used to make a point. A pickup basketball game between middle school children is likely to have many uncalled fouls (blocking, charging, etc.). Regardless of their body type, that is physical basketball. In the NBA, guys get called for a foul if they barely brush up against a perimeter player, that's...not so physical. So, the game can be physical regardless of if the players are strong or not. While I don't think it's accurate to say european basketball players are softer than nba players, I think it's clear that they are generally physically weaker. And, it is easy for a physically weak player to appear soft depending on who he's playing against. IMO, it seems, most people mean physically weak when they say soft. So, a player who is weak in euro ball will likely be VERY weak in the nba.
Great analysis! If he can push the opponent's big man out of paint and doesn't allow anyone pick up a ball above his head, that would be enough. Scola, Landry and Hays can grab those loose balls. That's what Yao did. Rebounding is a team work. I don't care the number of an individual player, I only care how many rebounds we get as a team. Hopefully, we can still be a top 5 rebounding team next season. I don't want to see Gasol and Odom grab the ball above Scola and Hays's heads again, simply because they are 6'' taller than them. That killed us last season.
Just thought it may be time to revisit this: So far, DA's rebounding at 8.1 per 36 minutes. For comparison, Landry is also rebounding at 8.1 per 36 minutes this year. Scola, the best rebounder on the team this year, is doing 11.5 per 36. Scola averaged 9.3 per 36 his rookie year. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/anderda03.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/scolalu01.html http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/landrca01.html Overall, it's fair to say that DA's rebounding is not great, but at least not dreadful. I would prefer a Scola+Hayes combo if securing a rebound is what I am looking to do, rather than one involving DA, but it's not like DA is so bad as to be unplayable. Also, he was much more of a liability on the boards in the earlier part of the season. He said it was due to adjustments to thing such as the defensive 3 secon rules. So, perhaps he'll finish the year at somewhere near the 9.3 per 36 that Scola averaged.
Who cares what he did in Europe? I can see that the guy is not strong enough to play more than 5-10 minutes at the center spot and is not a good rebounder. He needs two years in the weight room to make up for his lack of strength.
Agreed. I've actually been impressed with Andersen's work on the offensive boards as of late. You can see that he's getting a little better with each game as the season progresses. Heck, we're not even to the one-quarter point of the season, and you can already see an improvement in his game. I believe that, by the All-Star break, Andersen will be fairly well-adjusted to the NBA rules and will be contributing much more to the Rockets' rotation.
