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Does Alex Len have any upside?


Wurider05

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2 hours ago, AHF said:

Trae certainly has the passing ability to optimize his performance.

Exactly to my point that Trae can get the same amount of effeciency out of Jones on offense as Len but Damian offers better rim protection hence why he should start in my opinion. He has a lot of untapped potential and we have shown in recent years to develop players at an above average rate.

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5 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

Yep...He was so important to them, They traded him for a sack of potatoes and then went out and signed WCS and Looney for more money. Wonder why?:scratch:

You know exactly why: they’re contending for the title every year. Hawks aren’t in that position. Yet... 😉

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4 hours ago, AHF said:

You act like starting for GS is some mark of commendation for him.  That is the big stretch - promoting him as "the starting center for the back-to-back NBA champs!"  As if he had anything to do with those rings.  Jeremy Lin played over 3x as many minutes in the playoffs as Jones and Lin's starter teammate didn't get hurt and miss games and Lin was still washed and irrelevant. 

Jones starting for them was like Mario West starting for the Hawks only they could carry him to victories.  The plan when he started was to have better players step in early and often for him.  The numbers say he was below league average in his career best season last year.

The most remarkable thing about him is that he is the youngest guy NBA player I've ever heard of who has torn his pecs twice.

This doesn't make him worthless but to promote him like he was any kind of factor in them winning rings when he played a grand total of 8 minutes in the playoffs last season and barely did more in prior seasons is just silly.  He was a bit role player that they were happy to unload this offseason after Kevin Looney stepped in for him and outperformed him last season.  

Does that mean he can't fill a role for us?  Nope.  I do have some hope that he has skills that Trae can highlight and that he has the frame and athleticism to play a positive role for us on defense.  But let's not be ridiculous with what he has accomplished and who he has been.  If he plays a meaningful role for us, it will be his first meaningful role in the NBA.

 

And DJ is replacing Dedmon.  We went from starting last season with a center rotation of Len & Dedmon to starting this season with a rotation of Len & Jones.  Anyone can see what part of that equation changed.

 

I do hope you are right about Fernando stepping up.  That will be a good sign if he seizes a big role regardless of how Jones performs (actually probably an even better sign if Jones plays well and Fernando still takes the job).  Bruno is pretty raw but is an exciting talent with a lot of upside if things come together for him.

You’re reading more into my post than I’m putting into it. I’m not implying he had anything to do with their back-to-back rings. My point is if he’s good enough to be the fill in starter for back-to-back champs and go 15-9 in those 24 games, he’ll be fine as the Hawks 2nd and 3rd string C for now. For a team who may only accidentally sneak into the 8th seed. Is that clearer?

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10 hours ago, hazer said:

You’re reading more into my post than I’m putting into it. I’m not implying he had anything to do with their back-to-back rings. My point is if he’s good enough to be the fill in starter for back-to-back champs and go 15-9 in those 24 games, he’ll be fine as the Hawks 2nd and 3rd string C for now. For a team who may only accidentally sneak into the 8th seed. Is that clearer?

No. Even champs have gleague fodder as filli-in’s.  There is no imputed value to him from that, imo.  

GS has seen similar starts from Pat McCraw, Quinn Cook, Omri Casspi, James McAdoo and other guys who are barely rosterable.  

It means next to nothing.  I draw 100x more value from seeing what he did, whether they trusted him in the playoffs, etc. than saying “Bill Wennington was a starter for the 6x champion Bulls so that means he must be a valuable add, right?”

I don’t disagree with you that he may be fine as a 2nd or 3rd string center for a team that doesn’t aspire to make the playoffs but that is a pretty low bar and has nothing to do with GS’s championships.

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2 hours ago, AHF said:

No. Even champs have gleague fodder as filli-in’s.  There is no imputed value to him from that, imo.  

GS has seen similar starts from Pat McCraw, Quinn Cook, Omri Casspi, James McAdoo and other guys who are barely rosterable.  

It means next to nothing.  I draw 100x more value from seeing what he did, whether they trusted him in the playoffs, etc. than saying “Bill Wennington was a starter for the 6x champion Bulls so that means he must be a valuable add, right?”

I don’t disagree with you that he may be fine as a 2nd or 3rd string center for a team that doesn’t aspire to make the playoffs but that is a pretty low bar and has nothing to do with GS’s championships.

👌🏼 “ ~ Jimmy Conway

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My wishful thinking has Bruno developing like Wile E. Coyote on HGH with the game savvy of Tim Duncan, but patience is supposedly a virtue so do see Jones probably getting those minutes now. Pic-n-roll points and fast break starting defense by Jones as opposed to being just the pinewood bum predicted by a few.   

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2 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Check out your boy at the AEBL.

 

 

😆 ❤️ it. If he understands his role and accepts it, he is going to get about 82 oops 😬 upside ur heads a season from Trae alone. I wonder if our player development dudes just salivate at the potential of physically imposing guys like Damian and Hunter. 

Ps Again I just want to say again that Len’s shooting if much smoother specially from those corners but Damian almost brings everything Len doesn’t so they complement each other well. We have a good problem in Atlanta.

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14 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

I hope this translates this season as the full time starter.

A seven footer nailing forty percent from three is a gift. Expecting a couple or so more attempts per game this time around based on him probably hardly ever playing less than 28 minutes a contest.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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Quote

In the last five years, among seven-footers with at least 50 non-dunk attempts around the rim, Len has ranked 30th out of 30 in 2018-19, 29thout of 32 in 2017-18, 34th out of 34 in 2016-17, 33rd out of 33 in 2015-16, and 25th out of 30 in 2014-15 in field goal percentage.

That’s not merely bad, that’s consistently woeful.

There are three key reasons why Len’s finishing is so incredibly poor compared to his peers. First, he lacks quite a bit of vertical explosion, which forces him to have to load up when he needs to jump at the rim,. From there, he goes for a lot of tip-ins, which count in the statistics as attempts but have a much lower success rate than normal non-dunk finishes. Finally, he has relatively weak hands for his size, which leads him to try difficult tip-ins over grabbing offensive rebounds and defenders stripping him as he goes up. All three of these reasons are related in one way or another.

 

Quote

Len can’t catch the ball around his shoulders and explode from there, he has to bring the ball back down in order to swing his arms through to elevate to the rim. This lack of explosiveness in his legs makes it easier for defenders to poke the ball away before he swings his arms back up and gives fellow big men the time they need to recover for blocks or stronger contests.

His stone-like hands hurt him in pick-and-roll and around the rim, where he lacks a lot of touch even when he doesn’t get the ball knocked out of his hands.

 

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On 8/15/2019 at 10:54 PM, hazer said:

You know exactly why: they’re contending for the title every year. Hawks aren’t in that position. Yet... 😉

Now we know the real reason why.  Jones will definitely be out of the league in 2-3 years if not sooner.

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4 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

Now we know the real reason why.  Jones will definitely be out of the league in 2-3 years if not sooner.

Hasn’t played 1 single second of “official” ball for the Hawks yet. I’m not a fan, but give it a minute, ight? 😳

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