Dear Old U.Va.

In which I get my britches in a wad; Tom Ziller on Sylven Landesberg

Thursday, March 25 2010 by Ben

I love Tom Ziller.

He's smart, funny, and an outstanding NBA writer.  He does excellent work illustrating his points with clever graphics and has a sound understanding of advanced basketball statistics (including their limits, as well).

I have also heard that he once ate 13 tacos in a sitting.  Impressive.

So, needless to way I was heartbroken when I saw this.

Here was an NBA writer I respected painting Sylven Landesberg's last season at UVA in a bad light and implying that he hadn't improved an iota under Tony Bennett.  I disagree with this view, wrote him, and he updated the post to reflect this thinking. 

Did I mention he's also reasonable and level-headed? 

Below is my response.  I do regret the line about his teammates being crap; I got rather carried away.  They're not, but they're still not great.

Tom -
...great, great piece on Sylven Landesberg  [and a] team near and dear to my heart... I have watched Landesberg play, a lot.

I agree with your premise and will never criticize a player for leaving early (I even predicted Landesberg would go leave after his sophomore year last year, although it was more in a "Gosh this guy is good, we'll never keep him" type of mood.), but to say he didn't improve under Bennett is just, well, not quite right.

Landesberg improved substantially.  He improved all the aspects of his game that scouts ratted him out on: ast %, to%, 3-pt shooting.  All of this while upping his usage rate significantly.  How can you say people say he didn't improve?  I'm so lost by that statement. 

I agree that his teammates are crap - even running mate and high eFG% guy Mike Scott had a schizophrenic year, but is it possible that he's completely and totally getting the short shrift here?

Again, I'm not taking the side of Ratcliffe ("He should stay in college" gruff gruff gruff).  Instead, I'm flabbergasted that an NBA team wouldn't see the improvement.

He doesn't have a NBA game, I understand this.  He'd do well in the D-league and goodness knows Europe, but to say he didn't improve last season isn't doing right by him.

Thanks as always,
Ben