He could be a starter on the team if Scola plays bad defense every day. Did anyone see the Artest's post plays on Scola? It was sad. He can not even stop Artest on the post, even Bill said it was not excuse, I also saw his flop on the king's game, which resulted two points. I hope that that is just a simple lack of energy nothing else.
While I agree with your second point to some extent about him doing a lot of his damage against opposing second units, the fact is that his usage rate has actually increased significantly this year (18.1% to 22.8%) and his efficiency rating has simultaneously increased from 17.7 to 21.6. That is very rare -- as you indicated, higher usage should normally correlate with lower efficiency, but Landry has managed to significantly increase his efficiency while getting a lot more touches. And to temper the point about second units -- while he does come off the bench, he does still get a good number of minutes against starting opponents and it has not appeared to slow him down at all -- we've seen him put up the same offensive moves on the likes of Odom, Nowitzki and Aldridge with plenty of success. He obviously has never started, but he definitely is starter material on most teams and I don't think he has hit his ceiling yet. If he were to produce at his current rate in a starting PF position (and with starter minutes), he would certainly be worthy of all star consideration.
He is getting there and I think with some work on his rebounding and "D" he could become a solid "OT" type of power forward and if I recall correctly he made an all-star team. Side-note: I really think Landry may be the key to Scola's future with the Rox, if he continues to evolve into a solid starter type Scola could be used as trade bait or simply let go to open up cap space but this only happens when Landry is ready.
Last year I would have said no, but Carl has DRASTICALLY improved his post game and jumpshot. He has a great face-up jump jump and a good jump hook. To me he is a baby Amare. His ceiling is far higher than Scola's.
Have Landry, Scola, and Hayes been on the court at the same time at any point this year? With all of our rebounding woes, and with Landry showing more and more versatility with each passing game, I'd be interested to see this lineup for a couple minutes at some point, just to see what it looks like: Hayes Scola Landry Ariza Lowry Not saying that's anywhere close to our best lineup, but again, I'd just want to see what it looks like.
I think everyone needs to remember that Carl only makes 3 mil/year. Compare that to the 10+ mil/year that the guys we're comparing him to and I say give me Carl over any of those guys.
Well he usually comes in when the other team's scrubs are in. You can be more productive during those times.
I think Landry has a shot at getting to that level simply because he has improved so much over the last two seasons. Who's to say he can't get even better? As he is right now, I'm sure with more minutes, he would put up slightly increased numbers. However, as previous posters have alluded to, I'm fairly confident that Landry is the type of player that is best when used in smaller chunks. This way he provides a real spark off the bench. Take last night for example. The Lakers cut it to 9 in the middle of the 4th. Landry answers back with a couple of buckets against a gassed Lakers team to push the lead back to double digits.
landry doesn't have the speed to match up with most of the sf's. plus, like some said, he plays against the 2nd unit of the other team most of the time. practically, in a league packed with powerful pf's, to get to the allstar level for landry is tough.
I think he's on the right track, it's clear he's worked on his jumper and FT shooting, he's shooting 89% from the line this year.
I think there is some metric saying that Landry is amazing up until he gets to a certain number of minutes played. I think it was Morey talking about how great his effeciency is in 19 minutes of play or something similar. I am betting Landry's trails off with more minutes played.
6'9 hustle type PF's never make all-star games. landry gets most his points with his jumpshot and putbacks. he needs to be able to take people off the dribble and create his shot if he wants to be considered an all-star.
