Are We All Wrong About Alex Sarr?

Are We All Wrong About Alex Sarr?

[Music] sometimes the league just gets players totally wrong and I think that might be the case with Washington Wizards rookie Alex Sar just hear me out leading up to the 2013 draft Giannis was a relatively unknown prospect while his potential was clearly off the charts teams didn’t know what to make of him at 610 205 lbs Giannis could dribble and pass so they listed him as a small forward nba draft.net spelled his name completely wrong and compared him to Nick Patun so after the Bucks drafted him they played him at small forward and had him shooting threes during Giannis’ rookie year over 28% of his shot attempts came from beyond the three-point line the highest of his career this past year he took less than 5% of his shots from such distance what I’m trying to get at is that sometimes players are evaluated when they enter the league and are used according to how the player they were compared to when they were drafted is used in Alexar’s case that’s guys like Jiren Jackson Jr and Evan Moble in some ways the comparison definitely makes sense at 7 ft with a 74 wingspan Zahar is already a menace on the defensive end not only is he an impact shot blocker he’s a rare breed that also has the mobility to guard quicker players on the perimeter this chart here compares SAR to a small handful of the league’s best defenders right now guys that anchor their teams BAM JJ Miles Turner and Mullen all stats coming from their rookie years the further up they are on the chart the more shots they block while they’re on the court the further they are to the right the more steals they get star outpaced all of them during his rookie year aside from Jackson the 2023 Rookie of the Year he’s also a very good onball defender for a rookie but not in the ways you might think though he’s an incredible shot blocker those are actually often come off the weak side as the help defender tar’s weakest point on defense at this point comes within 5 ft of the basket where he still often gets outmuscled by bigger players that’ll likely change in time but where he excels is further away from the basket among setters he held his opponent to very low field goal percentages from 5 to 9 ft and past the three-point line thanks to his quickness and coordination at his side interestingly the five centers that we are comparing fared on the exact opposite ends of the spectrum in rebounding and in blocking as rookies sar was the second weakest rebounder during his rookie year only to JJ however he was much better on the offensive glass when he used his quickness and instincts to grab loose balls on offense is where things get interesting sar had a very high usage rate for a rookie and was horribly inefficient especially for a big man this chart shows that he trailed all the other elite defensive bigs in field goal percentage and effective field goal percentage by a lot thar shot under 40% from the field this year which is historically inexcusable for a man who was 7 ft tall however shot selection definitely played a factor thar shot tons of his shots from three this year over five shots per game that’s more than double Jackson who shot the second most threes as a rookie of all comparable bigs and more than four times as many as Mo zar hit those three-pointers at just about 31% accuracy far from elite but not bad at all for a 7ft tall 19-year-old rookie who blocked a shot and a half per game actually very impressive his mechanics look really good too sar is highly skilled
spinning using the left hand good move by the rookie if we look even closer we can look at this chart which explains what proportion of player shots they took from each part of the floor as well as how effective they were from each of those spots star was the only one in the group that took less than 30% of his shots at the rim and considering his size he looked pretty uncomfortable finishing in traffic for a guy with his height and his athleticism you’d think he’d be pounding it down there with ease but he wasn’t zar was regularly adjusting his shot midair trying to lay it in and he had a worse field goal percentage in close than any other big did in their rookie year aside from Miles Turner from 3 to 10 ft that spot on the floor where guys like Jokic and Duncan used their skill and physicality to dominate and get easy buckets sar really struggled he looked very uncomfortable in that range shooting an abysmal 36% as mentioned though he looked better from mid-range and deep and is likely to improve there too aside from shooting from distance Alexar shocked a lot of fans with how good he was at passing as a rookie he assisted on nearly 14% of his team shots when he was on the floor even more than Bam and Moy during their rookie years i don’t know that passing was really in the scouting report when Star entered the league but he was dropping dimes all right so where am I going with all this here’s my take sar isn’t really a center he clearly can play center since he can defend the interior but that isn’t where he’s going to best develop in the NBA he’s a poor defensive rebounder he shies away from contact around the rim and he wasn’t particularly good at defending his man down low however he was great at defending the perimeter looks good shooting from distance and was a surprisingly good passer i think this could be a case of you’re 7 foot tall and you block shots so we’re playing you at center type situation if Sar was 3 in shorter he’d profile way more as a versatile wing play this chart shows Sar’s shooting profile breakdown compared to a different list of players lengthy wing Jaden McDaniel Brandon Ingram Lowry Marketing and Jabari Smith Jr it’s definitely a weird list of different guys that play different statistically but that’s the thing i think Sar is very much his own thing if you look at the chart his shot selection is much more similar to these guys than it was in the big offensively Sar profiles most identically to Jabari Smith Jr of Houston both spent around 30% of their time as finishers at the rim both largely avoided the tough bloater in between zone both occasionally shot mid-range shots both were high volume three-point shooters and both of them had the vast majority of their shots especially from three assisted by other players meaning they weren’t really creating shots off the dribble but aside from shooting Sar was incrementally better than Smith in his rookie year zar was slightly better at rebounding and stealing the ball but he was significantly better at passing while not turning the ball over that much more he also blocked nearly double as many of his opponent’s shots undoubtedly a superior prospect another look is Sar versus Brandon Ingram statistically the guys play very differently sar loves to shoot from three and had the vast majority of his shots assisted by other players meanwhile even as a rookie Ingram was more comfortable putting the ball on the floor and creating his own shot especially from mid-range but there are some similarities as well remember Ingram as a rookie played for a really bad Lakers team and took a lot of shots both guys have long wingspans and were inefficient ingram has become largely more efficient since then giving hope to Sar but where they parallel is the passing even as a rookie Ingram had an assist percentage above 10% sars is even higher sar could really develop into something special a defensive anchor that is a wing player and an advanced passer that can also pitch and shoot the three sounds like a damn good player to me thanks for watching let me know what you think about Alexar in the comment section and don’t forget to subscribe

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Is Alex Sarr being miscast as just another shot blocking big man? The rookie for the Washington Wizards might be a totally different player than what scouts projected. We break down why Sarr’s real strengths like elite defense, surprising playmaking, and a promising jumper could make him the NBA’s next breakout star.

#AlexSarr #NBARookie #washingtonwizards

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