[ESPN]Bill Simmons: Answers his own Email (Landry Reference)

I am not a big fan of Yi but it's too early to say he is a bust. He is stuck in the NBA hell called Milwaukee.

 

9th is about right. You have to remember landry is 24 years, if he were the age of the players ahead of him, he would be atleast top 6.

 

I honestly think that if we redo the draft now, Landry goes in the lottery.

The Rockets got themselves a nice steal in Carl.

 

Yup, You don't write off someone as a bust after not even one full season.

 

I honestly wanted Al Thornton in this draft because I thought his explosiveness would be a great fit next to Yao. Now it looks like we possibly got the same player for a lot less money initially and who knows, Landry may outwork Thornton and wind up the better player.

 

Hey, I'm curious, I just read the Landry entry in the Simmons article, is he really that good? Rather, I've seen him just a tiny bit and he looked very good, but I didn't have any sense of upside, one way or the other.

Basically, I saw him move very well without the ball, finish exceedingly well, and really work for rebounds. That's a rotation player in the NBA, for sure, but what about his upside? Does he have any ball skills---shooting, passing, handling? Does he defend?

I'm delighted with what he brings to the table now, but I haven't seen him enough to have a sense of how good he can be. The one issue with him is the same as with Yi, they're both almost 25. Landry is probably close to being what he'll always be. That's why I'm curious about what he is now, because that suggests how good he could be if he had more responsibility on the court.

 

Anyone else (old enough to remember) think Yi looks like a ThunderCat?

 

Landry does not need upside, he already got there. He is the only rookie or bench player who is in top 50 in PER ranking.

Landry can shoot. His jump shooting eFG% >53%, which is higher than Yao,TMAC, Scola, Kobe, Boozer, Dirk, Okur, or whoever you can think of. His overall FG% is 64%, leagues 2nd best.

Landry can dunk. He is a beast like Howard. Both dunk 30% of their shot attempts. We need this kind of vertical players.

Landry can rebound. His offensive rebounding rate is leading the league.

Landry is consistent in 4th quarter. we've seen too many dunk and 1 plays from him.

Landry's 2.5 FTA per game in 16 minutes is pretty decent for a rookie and bench player who does not have the ball in his hand.

He will be a star once he improves his upper body strength and steals some post plays from Scola.

 

Anyway he is still behind Pepe Sanchez (Scola´s PG at the Olympic Team) and Prigioni (Scola´s PG at the FIBA Americas -and TAU-), both of them average better assists than Rudy, Rudy is a scoring PG.
Plus, they are both argentineans and free agents after this season.

 

which one? one of the thunderkittens? or cheetara