the pacemaker
christian anderson is slowing it down
the hunch:
christian anderson plays like he’s covered in honey. this is the story of the christian anderson pick and roll. anderson stands at the top of the key dribbling the ball as if it were symbiotic with him. his eyes never look down. texas tech’s big man lumbers for the screen and anderson’s defender immediately goes over (an attempt to hinder anderson’s automatic jumper). no problem. he slides his feet around gauging the big man, as his hands make poetry out of dribbling. finally, anderson drives. his drives to the basket should be changed to some other word, like swims. they are too smooth to be compared to something as rigid as a car. so he swims into the lane, and drags both his and his big man’s defenders into his orbit, like his dribble has a gravitational pull. this leaves his big man nakedly open. bounce pass. dunk. scripture in two points.
the metric:
christian anderson’s profile reads as a borderline-three-way offensive output machine that can impact any nba team at a high level. his main contribution is his playmaking ability, reflected in both his 33.4 ast% and 1.83 PProd/min. a 3PAr of .563 with .43 3p% is almost unheard of, add to that an eFG% of .61 and you’re looking at a top-level statistical prospect. anderson would like to lower his tov%, which sits at 15.9, which looks even worse next to his average usg% of 23.3. anderson puts in some defensive effort as well. picking 1.6 steals per game with and boasting a 2.7 dbpm, which is well above average for an undersized guard. if anderson babysits the ball a bit more carefully in the next few weeks, he’ll be rising on draft boards at rapid rates.
the curve
the floor: ball-handling rotation guard for a perimeter-heavy team
the ceiling: high-end playmaker with an average scoring ceiling. Mike Conley mold.