That's what I like, the versatility on offense. Especially driving to the basket part, we haven't had such a pf for years.
Well from watching the Boilermakers during the regular season, they were mostly concerned with tough help defense. Blocking shots was not really emphasized.
I like this pick by Houston, but I hope Landry at least gets some time to show what he's made of. I really think we'll find a starting PF, and I think we should slowly transition Landry into a replacement for Chuck Hayes. Hayes has been nice and all, but the guy is just too small. If his offensive abilities weren't limited to that of a water cooler, he'd be much more valuable, but I really think Landry can fully replace Hayes in every way and be much more productive offensively.
Sure but then how many players could we pick out that had ideal or even great size for their positions that completely flopped? The traffic on that road really goes both ways.
He has a good wingspan, because of his wide shoulders. However, he does have alligator arms. He has the shortest standing reach out of all drafted PFs at 8'6.5". That's a good 4.5" shorter than the mean standing reach 8'11" of the rest of the PFs. Standing Reach(in order of least to greatest) Carl Landry 8'6.5" Jason Smith 8'10" Josh McRoberts 8'10.5" Joakim Noah 8'10.5" Stephen Lasme 8'11"(Plastic Man arms? He is only 6'7" in shoes) Al Horford 8'11" Herbert Hill 9'0.5" Brandan Wright 9'0.5"
Ray Allen isn't undersized for a SG. Michael Jordan was only 1 inch taller (and that's debatable) and about 10 lbs heavier when he played in Chicago. he was always considered a big guard. none of those SFs except Bowen are undersized. Scottie Pippen, Glenn Robinson and Grant Hill were considered prototypical SFs at 6' 7-8" and 230 lbs. Karl Malone also was the prototypical PF at 6'9", 250-60lbs. as for centers, there aren't really any true skilled centers besides Yao, Shaq, Ilgauskas, and maybe Duncan and Brad Miller. Mourning in his prime was great, but still a bit undersized.
Agree with you 100%, although I think Landry is alot stronger than some people may think and I am with you about Landry cracking the lineup as a rookie. He is going to surprise alot of people.
I thought the prototypical PF was 6'10" and 260 lbs. Landry is a 1 " short at 6'9" and 12 lbs lighter at 248 lbs.
None of these guys are really undersized for their position. Especially at center. Hakeem was 6'10 and he was fine as a center. THe problem with Landry is he is closer 6'7 than 6'9. Thatis severely undersized. Its not a huge difference over chuck in his height.
IIRC, the Dream was 6 feet 10 3/4 inches in bare feet. In shoes he was 7 feet. I wish the NBA would only give measurements in bare feet because some of these guys wear "platform" athletic shoes. I regard these "in shoes" height measurements as deceit by the NBA. Aaron Brooks measures up to 6 feet, for example, because of his shoes. Steve Novak measured 6 feet 8 1/2 inches barefoot and 6-10 in shoes. The list is as long as the total NBA roster. The NBA allows this so they will give men (who are generally over-sized in the first place) a "superhuman" attribute which, of course, makes the sport more awesome and sellable.
If Carl is 6'7.75" without shoes. That's the same height has David Lee 6'7.75". David West is 6'8.25" . Since Landry is severely undersized, then all those guys are severely undersized also.
I rarely saw him play, but my impression is that Landry simply played solid post-defense on ballside and was never much of a weakside shot-blocker. It also seemed like Purdue needed Landry too much offensively to let him gamble defensively at pick up fouls. The guy he reminds me of at this stage is Udonis Haslem, only more athletic and with a better face-up game. I was at Florida when they recruited Haslem and he was always a slightly undersized post-threat. It was only in Europe that he developed a mid-range game and lost some weight. But Landry is already where he is in those areas. He may be slightly undersized but, just like Haslem, he plays solid position defense in the post even if he does not block shots and he has a solid post and mid-range game offensively. That doesn't mean the kid will play immediately, but I don't see any reason why he can't do what Haslem has in the next two or three years.
Exactly my point.... I don't consider them undersized really. Just calling them undersized going by what I've seen posted by many others here. But from my recollection Jordan had Allen by about 20 lbs. not just 10. Then, I'm just trying to go by memory. Nowadays it seems like people want the SG's to be at least 6'7". The PF's 6'10" the centers 7' and as I said I don't know where the SF's are supposed to be but I figure if the SG's are supposed to be 6'7" then that would be once again "undersized" for a SF.
This is completely false. He is closer to 6'9"(6'8.5" in shoes) while he measured 6'7.75" w/o shoes. When he wears normal NBA shoes(1.25" soles) instead of ballerina shoes he is a legit 6'9". I can't believe people still believe he is 6'7" when he measure an inch taller than that w/o shoes.
Very good comparison. Also Haslem is arguably taller and bigger than Haslem which is pretty impressive since Haslem can hold his own in the NBA. A Haslem type player is exactly what we need. I hope Landry can hang with Haslem's defensive quickness and tenacity against quick PF's too. Haslem guarded Dirk about as good as anyone one on one. The only other player capable of holding Dirk as good one on one is Tmac IMO. Although everyone on the Warriors pretty much had his number, I think their team defense helped a lot. I also hope Landry can rebound like Haslem which would be huge.
One problem with the comparison: Haslem was always a very good rebounder. Landry is below average. Good rebounding always translates to the NBA. Poor rebounding normally does. I'd be ecstatic if Landry is as good as Haslem, but I'm certainly not holding him to that standard.
PG's ideal height is about 6'2 SG's ideal height is 6'5-6'6 (Jordan and Kobe). 6'4 guys are usually considered tweeners, 6'3 is considered undersized. SF's ideal height is 6'7-6'8 (TMac, Vince, Lebron, Jefferson). SF's have the biggest range because they can usually play multiple positions. Most can play SG (TMac), some can play PF (Rashard, Marion). Most are 6'7 or 6'8. PF's ideal height is 6'9 (Not a whole lotta guys that actually measure out at 6'9, but it's pretty much the standard for PF's. 6'8 guys aren't really considered undersized anymore because of so many guys who have had success, but it is a little shorter than ideal. Now, 6'7 guys are considered undersized. C ideal height is 6'10-6'11 (That's why 7 footers are rare and always go higher in the draft than their talent may warrant)
Actually Haslem wasn't impressive in rebounds and blocks at Florida apparently. http://www.sportsstats.com/jazzyj/greats/cba02/haslem.htm Landy's 6'8 to 6'9 size does not concern me. His short arms and lack of blocks and board production against college boys he should have dominated does (like I said, nothing like Kenny Thomas, Diogu or Shel Williams in those deparments). But Landry has nice offensive numbers and great athleticism numbers for a guy his size. My hope is he wasn't asked to board or block that much, maybe Purdue had a style of reduced possesions, getting back on d versus crashing the O boards, and strait up defense. Some have suggested Purdue had some of these qualities.
Another interesting thing is that Chuck Hayes was not nearly as prolific a rebounder in college as he has been in the NBA on a per-minute basis. 7.7 rebound in 29.3 minutes for Chuck, as oppose to 7.3 per 30.4 minutes for Landry. Considering Landry had to deal with recovery from the ACL, he has some potential to be a better NBA rebounder than he has been in college, too. Maybe not as good as Hayes. I think Haslem's better NBA rebounding is explained by his better conditioning. I believe he was kinda chubby in college.
