watch the two plays starting at 7:46 on len's draft vid...



he blows by mcdoo of north carolina going right on the baseline, one dribble, reverse two-handed jam off the left leg.. with contact.

very impressive.

then, very next highlight, this time vs plumlee - goes left on the baseline after a ball fake, again one dribble, two-handed reverse jam off the RIGHT leg, again with contact!

gtfo.

and the guy has a legit turnaround jumper, a lost art in today's game.

skilled player - but my concern is the injury - if you listen to his draft vid, he says he put on 25 pounds last offseason in weight.

this is too much without the requisite increase in core strength. if i put a 25 pound weight on my shoulder and ran around, eventually i'd get a stress fracture.

he will be much better off focusing on core strength than increasing his weight in chunks. the core strength will give him what he's trying to get from the weight anyway, while increasing his hops and quickness, not the other way around. increase the weight far more gradually and incrementally.
.

if it can be done w/ a handful of mid-1st rounders then why would you necessarily need to swing for the fences if you were picking top 7 every year.

edit- hibbs being all-star caliber basically proves my point- iirc he was regarded as a low upside pick at 18th overall and now he's the best center itl. people always understate the error bars on prospects and 2p2 always overstates how variance needy bad teams necessarily should be.

never said you had to "swing for the fences"; actually said Len has very attractive combo of floor/ceiling as well as stocking purposes (due to injury) to assist in tank for 2014 class

Haha oh wow. McAdoo is the biggest fraud of all time

The dude is 19 years and old 7'1". I feel like him putting on 25 pounds is not an issue. Also your analogy re: you carrying around a 25 pound weight seems pretty terrible. Less terrible if you are 19 and 7'1", but still terrible. Also, SS + GOMAD.

maybe i misunderstood why you meant by saying that safe picks aren't that useful for lotto teams then

Len really needs to develop a left hand. Even before I got to the weaknesses section, there were a couple plays in the step through part that made it really obvious he's not comfortable with his left. That's going to be a pretty huge problem.

you don't make varsity hs teams without a left hand. quite certain his left is fine lol

Yeah, he's a project. Could be amazing tho.
he has no left

based on the fact that he is adept at taking off his right leg, i can guarantee he has a left. it is very laughable to think he doesn't.

mavs trying to sell the 13th pick for more cap space. lol?

if you're 7 feet tall you make nba teams with no left

that's true. and you also don't use your left that much, and, it is extremely easy to develop if it was ever needed; certainly not a "big problem."

but the guy has a left. you don't take off your right completely naturally and then just finish with your right all the time (essentially wrong-footing it).

Cubes still paying off his tab from Fontainebleau in 2011

There's 1 or 2 examples in that video of him being awful with his left hand and a couple more examples of how he forces his way into a turnover or a bad shot by not willingly taking the move to the right shoulder that the defender is baiting him into.

On top of that, there's 2 made baskets in particular where he makes things a lot more difficult by not going to his left hand.

This is a basic post up where he turns around and faces the defender:



He makes a nice move to the middle of the court...



And the defense over pursues leaving an easy pivot move back to where he started...



And this is him forcing the shot with his right because he's not comfortable with his left. He makes it a more difficult shot because he's shooting with the hand opposite the direction he's moving and he allows the defender to catch up easier and contest or block the shot. He ends up making this shot, but against a bigger NBA defender who has scouted him, this is an invitation for a block.

The second play is against Plumlee in one of the Duke games. Another play that starts with a basic post up:



Then he makes his move to the middle again.



This is right as he pivots. I couldn't get the screen shot at the right point, but you can kind of see how Plumlee is moving towards the center of the court. Len ends up having a nice lane to the left side of the paint.



But, again, he uses his right hand instead. This time, he even jumps into the defender making Plumlee's job a lot easier. NBA defenders are going to love this when they see it on film. When you're not going against college stiffs, you have to be able to make quick moves that aren't dependent on what hand you're using. And Len still has a long way to go in that regard.

len is highly skilled - he's more skilled than the most skilled guard in your local pickup game.

it's impossible for a player with skill like that and that has played as much hoops as len, to "not have a left hand."

irresponsible by the draftxpre guy to say that. maybe a little naive.

Pretty bold proclamation. 6'6" guy who led the Big East in assists and was a shutdown defender, and has a 40+ inch vertical has no potential you say? Tell me more.

They will likely package #13 + Marion to dump most, if not all, of the last year of his deal. They should be able to do it and only take back something small, considering the pick is worth like $4m+. Some team with cap space that can't use it well (Charlotte, Cleveland, etc.) should jump at it.

trainwreck's foot fetish paying off in another thread. Dude, Len is clearly more comfortable using his right and there are several(more than just the screencaps) times just in that video where Len goes with the strong hand in a way that is too predictable for the NBA. When someone says "has no left" they aren't speaking literally.

I thought their plan was to take a Euro and not sign him for a year.

Sorry bro, he's got no left. I don't know what to tell ya

the left hand thing is ridiculous. no one that has played that much hoops, doesn't have a left hand.

it's virtually impossible. any baller that has played any real hoops knows that.

now whether you can actually finish super comfortably off the off-leg is another story. but he can do that too.

he also wouldn't need a left hand when he can physically dominate, like he had the ability to in college. you'll see his left much more in the nba if he's healthy.

seems like a lot of tall centers like him get hurt though, and stay hurt off-and-on perpetually.

i think we should look at zeller a little closer.

i mean, if his college game translates, he'll be a superstar and marketed as such.

twd: bust out some youtube videos of len owning fools with his left hand to tell errybody the thang

So your point is he can dunk two-handed off his right foot and thus can make left-handed hooks??