When it was announced that David West would be out for the season about two weeks ago, the obvious replacement was his backup Carl Landry, who was acquired from the Kings earlier in the season.  While Landry is a quality player, the question is can he successfully replace David West, not only in terms of production, but in style of play.

This is because if Landry can’t replace West and what he does, and do it in the same way, the Hornets are going to be forced into switching around what they do on the offensive end.  So the first thing that we need to look at when asking if Carl Landry can replace David West is the possession breakdown.  The following graph shows how both players have been used this season with the Hornets (numbers from Synergy Sports Technology):

When looking at the possession breakdown you notice West gets isolated a little bit more and the Hornets run more plays for West to come off screens for jumpers while Landry gets more chances off of offensive rebounds and cuts to the rim.  That makes sense since West was the better shooter and overall player of the two.  Other than those small changes things look pretty similar, especially with the two most used categories.  Both players get posted up 28% of the time, while the percentage of possessions used for both is also similar (West uses 15% of possessions for the pick and roll while Landry uses 14%).

Now that we see the Hornets using Landry the same way as West, we have to ask, should they be?  To figure this out, we need to look at the points per possession of two key categories, post-ups and pick and rolls:

While we see that David West is much more effective when in the pick and roll, we also see that Carl Landry has been much more effective in the post than West during his time with New Orleans.  So why has West been more effective than Landry with the pick and roll?  Because West is the much better player when being used in the pick and pop.  The following graph shows how each player has been used when coming off of screens they have set:

Though West pops out vs. rolling to the rim at a higher percentage than Landry, you can see that the Hornets have asked Landry to do the same.  Landry pops 67% of the time he sets a screen, (45th most in the NBA.  West’s % is 31st in the NBA).  While both players pop out at almost the same rate, they aren’t even close in terms of success.  Landry has posted a PPP of 0.900 on 45% shooting vs. West and his PPP of 1.028 on 51.8% shooting.  So why is Landry less successful than West?  It’s the way they set screens:

I have said it in the past, but David West is the best worst screener in the NBA.  He almost never makes contact, and while that doesn’t help Chris Paul get open, it is one of the reasons why West is able to be so successful in the pick and pop.  The lack of contact allows West to get to his spot, make himself available for the pass, get the ball, and knock down the wide open jumper.  It is almost like a slipped screen, so when West’s man hedges on the screen, it is hard for him to recover and close out on the shot.

On the other hand, Landry sets a more traditional screen, waiting until Paul uses the screen before popping out:

Doing so allows his man to hedge, and get back in time to prevent a dribble drive and contest a shot.  Landry is already a worse shooter than West, add the fact that Landry is taking more contested jumpers, and that means he is going to be much less effective in the pick and pop.  Landry isn’t much better when he is rolling to the rim, as his PPP when doing so is 1.0 (good for 101st in the NBA).

So when asking if Landry can replace West, you see that he can/the Hornets are trying to make it work. Will it be successful in the playoffs? I just don’t see it happening.  The Hornets need to make a few changes, including using screens more to get Chris Paul to the rim rather than using them to get the basketball to the roll man, and posting Landry up more.  So far as a Hornet, Landry has been pretty effective in the post.  I think that if the Hornets use take a few of his pick and roll plays and change them into post-up opportunities, the Hornets will be more effective on the offensive end and harder to stop in the playoffs.