David Andersen signing with the Hawks?
Accordingly to Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo (a reputable news outlet), David Andersen is finally joining the NBA and the Atlanta Hawks.
The Australian big man had a great season with Barcelona, in his first year in the Catalan club, culminating with the ACB championship and two great games in the Euroleague Final 4.
To sum it up briefly, the article states that Andersen can exercise a clause that allows him to walk to the NBA till the 15th July, that his dream was always to play for a NBA, that he's willing to play there for the same salary he earns in Europe (€2M), that the Hawks are interested on him to replace Zaza Pachulia, who's possibly leaving. His agent made no comments except to notice that Andersen's contract allows him to leave for the NBA without any payment.
over 2 years ago
cordobes
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Big news
So much for my dreams that Andersen could be had for the Kings. (Not that I thought the Hawks would give him up given that he could be very productive alongside Smith and Horford.)
Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
nice find
as long as he is an addition to zaza/birdman/antonio mcdyess and not a replacement, i am very excited to see him come over and show if he can play.
thanks to the hhb.com
the article apparently states andersen would want at least what he is making over seas…which is 2.8 million.
not sure that is going to happen.
He is actually a better player than what people realize
He’s been playing at a high level of the EuroLeague for a long time (most of this decade) and has played for some of the biggest names and teams.
So I’m not sure “showing” he can play is the problem. I don’t really understand why the Hawks wouldn’t have brought him over earlier. Offensively, he’s probably far better than Dice is right now. It’s defensively that he’ll have a bigger problem.
I found this youtube clip of him a long time ago, and it’s probably a decent representation of what the Hawks would get.
Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
I've always thought he could be a Mehmet Okur-lite
But 2.8 million a year seems a tad steep. If it comes to a straight decision between Zaza and Andersen, I’m taking Zaza even though he costs more. Andersen could do great things being a perimeter big for the second team and a change of pace for Horford, but there’s plenty of really good players this offseason settling for the MLE because of the way team cap structures are.
But still, I kind of want this guy on the Hawks’ bench. The Hawks are really just a few supplement pieces away from a serious contender in the East. But that, of course, assumes everyone fits into places and are used correctly. Right now, our second team is looking like it’s got some ability to score in bunches, but there’s still only one ball amongst them. And those who like to dribble all the time are the ones that Woodson wants to dribble all the time.
I'm glad he's coming over and all
But we better not be bringing him over to replace Zaza. We need at least one more big man that can play. He might be a great European player but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s unproven
He's clearly
not the bruiser Zaza is, either, and we need that kind of toughness and rebounding from somewhere.
That's true
He really should be being brought in to complement Zaza and Horford, and not to replace Zaza.
Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
I don’t really know anything about Andersen. I know he is a good offensive player but bad defensively. Other than that, how does he play?
He's not necessarily bad defensively
as far as I know. But he’s another of those European style bigs in the mold of Bargnani or Okur who stay on the perimeter and aren’t necessarily bangers.
Basically, he’s a 6’11 FC who can score in a variety of ways. He’s a great shooter who can knock down the 3 (40% in Euroleague) or hit the mid range shot from any angle. He can spot up and hit jumpers, or he can he hit the turnaround out of the post. Also, he’s developed a decent array of post moves and he can use his quickness to score inside. His post game won’t necessarily translate to the NBA, but it’s not as though he doesn’t have one. And he knocks down 80% of his free throws, so he’s an asset at the foul line.
He also rebounds at a very poor rate. He averaged only 4.2 rebounds in 21 minutes/game, which isn’t what you’d like to see from a player of his size. There’s no advanced statistics for Euroleague that I can find (so I can’t translate that into percentages or per possessions for you) but the rate is just not very good. His game is geared toward being just a big man on the perimeter, and while guys like Nowitzki and Okur have proven the value of rangy bigs, they both also know how to use their size well.
He’s certainly not to be confused with fellow Aussie center Andrew Bogut, who plays like a more traditional big man.
interesting
I was looking at his stats, but I know very little about european leagues. It worries me a bit that he only plays 21 minutes. If he’s not good enough to play alot of minutes there why would he be good enough to play here.
That worry could be way off because again, I know very little about european ball
Not an issue
In Europe, players don’t usually play much more minutes than that, especially the best ones, who generally play in the better teams. Barcelona had a stacked team and possibly the best frontcourt in Europe. Andersen’s backup, Ersan Ilyasova, will be joining the NBA next season as well.
Andersen was a top-7 PF in Europe. However, his game fits very well the European style, but not so much the NBA.
Bronn
DX has a comprehensive stats section for every player in their database (including NBA players). So it’s helpful to see that. But, what’s great is they do it for prospects too.
Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
Thanks very much for the heads-up. I’ll look into those a bit more, but at first glance it appears as though he was a decent rebounder in years past for for CSKA Moscow, but was rather atrocious this year for Barcelona.
Yeah but as Cordobes said
Barcelona didn’t need him to do that. With Vazquez, Ilyasova and Santiago, he was in a tough spot to compete for those boards.
Look at Barcelona’s board stats for the individual if you can find them. I would be curious to see the whole league, but I would bet that Barcelona killed their opponents on the boards.
Also bronn, you have to understand that Europe suppresses stats, and everything suffers for that very reason. Every great player you’ve ever heard of over there (and maybe guys who didn’t realize played over there like Bob McAdoo) all had drop offs over there for that reason. That wide lane changes everything.
Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
I don't like David Andersen as much as pookeyguru
Make no mistake: he’s a very enjoyable player to watch. Very polished offensive game, terrific jump-shot with good form, a very skilled face-up 4 that can execute ballscreens perfectly (especially the pick’n’pop), take slower opponents off the dribble, finish with both hands, shoot from almost everywhere, with his feet set, coming off cuts or pulling off the bounce; awesome FT shooter, great high post passer, good understanding of the game and very fluid and smooth moving on the floor and executing his moves.
However, he’s soft as pillows. He doesn’t like to play inside. If he gains position there, he’ll pass the ball or try to finish with a fadeaway turnaround jumper. He has a decent hook shot, but if bodied up he’ll very probably miss it. He struggles quite a bit to finish in the painting through contact. He isn’t explosive and he won’t overpower anybody.
What coaches usually try to do to stop Andersen it to have an athletic wing with length guarding him. Andersen isn’t physical enough to take advantage of a smaller, slimmer counterpart.
Plus, defensively he’s pretty bad. People can score on him inside by just jumping into him, he does a bad job recovering from showing on ball-screens, he doesn’t block shots and he lacks awareness and lateral quickness.
Rebounding wise, he’s average. He’s comparable to, say, Scola. His numbers dropped this season because he was paired with 3 of the best rebounders in Europe, Ilyasova, Vazquez. and Santiago. I predict something around a 16% rebounding rate.
All in all, he can be a good backup big if you need someone who can put up some points and space the floor. If your priorities are different, you should try someone else. And you better have him paired with a good defensive big.
Sounds good
We need as many shooters as we can get, and scoring off the bench is at a premium here, But we will certainly need another backup big aside from him.
I did say that up top
He’s really an excellent complement to Zaza, and not without him there.
Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
Scola might not have been the best comparison
Scola was a good rebounder on a very good rebounding team in the NBA last year. He collected virtually the same percentage of rebounds as Yao, and when Chuck Hayes got minutes he hit the boards hard too. And Landry was a good rebounder.
He’s probably more like Okur in terms of rebounding. In fact, Okur is the best NBA comparison I can find for him in many aspects, though he’s been in the NBA long enough that he’s adapted his play. Andersen might not be as strong or tough as Okur, but possibly a better shooter/scorer.
And if we get him, it’s yet another defensive weakpoint for the coach who preaches defense. We’ll likely be the team next year that gets credit for good defense all the time despite being bad at playing defense.
If we can bring in both he and Zaza, our second team is starting to look like an offensive powerhouse, and with Zaza, there will be a defensive presence. That and Mo Evans leadership make me think we may have one of the best second strings in the league. What do you guys think?
PG – Jeff Teague
SG – Jamal Crawford (One a or two?)
SF – Mo Evans
PF – David Andersen
C – Zaza Pachulia
Let’s hope it plays out like that. Teague may have as tough a time finding minutes as Acie Law did. Especially if (wince) we resign Flip Murray, which is looking dangerously possible at this juncture.
Actually, a lot of the buzz seems to be that Zaza isn’t going to be back in Atlanta. He’s drawing some interest, and he’s not going to offer Atlanta a hometown discount, according to what he’s already said. So unless the Hawks find a way to cut into their cap-possibly by moving Childress or Crawford-they won’t be able to afford him. We should really have just let Solo go his own way and not even bothered with the QO for him. Andersen and Zaza would make a great second unit frontcourt.
One nice thing about Andersen is that he's a quality passer
I don’t know if Cordobes mentioned that in his writeup. Having a guy like that with Teague should help as well because what Andersen doesn’t do in being a banger, he does makes up with his skills on the perimeter.
Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
Noone has seen the guy play a game in the NBA
Solo could be better for all we know. the guy is 29 years old. He is not exactly Kukoc, the best thing in the International Leagues during his time. So, he would have been over here already if he were a game changer. As for Zaza, good riddance, he doesn’t deserve anything more than what he got this year. He is a servicable backup at best.
by Hawks-Semi Fan on Jul 6, 2009 8:18 PM EDT up reply actions
He can score
He looks like he can score against the Clips that’s all I know. He had 15 pts, 2 reb, and 2 ast in 23 minutes against the Clips in an exhibition game less than a year ago. The 2 rebs bother me. He is definitely not a good replacement for Zaza. He would be a good addition if we dont lose much.
He is 29 and never played a day in the NBA
2.8 to 3 mill a year, no way is he worth that. That’s like paying a lottery pick and he is not that.
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