Marcus wrote:Thoughts on the SDSU game are as follows.
liked the way he handled the doubles for the most part, when he took his time he made the right play more than not. He needs to learn to attack with his head up considering the blitz he may see this year when he catches it on the block because rest assured this will be the blueprint for Zion going forward. He progressively did a better job picking his spots on the drives to the basket. The vision was there as usual. The extra effort was there as well. He answered another question for me here similar to the 2nd half of the Army game, what happens when he's not scoring? he does other things, set picks, extra effort on the glass, didn't force offense and made the right passes. Understood who had it going and got the ball around.
I still absolutely hate his general lack of fundamentals on defense and with rebounding. Since these are things that he can be taught at the next level and he probably won't be taught at this current one this is something that will irk me to no end this year, i can feel it. Way too upright in his stance which takes away from his mobility. Closeouts lack effort but he makes up for it with athleticism, gets lost when he's not targeted on the ball, only really engaged when there's a play to be made. THAT is the most glaring irritation in the whole thing because he makes plays seemingly without trying. he had a couple steals last night when he was wayyyyy outta position and he just happened to reach out or dart in the direction of the pass. If this kid buckled down and played completely locked in on the defensive end of the floor he has ALL the tools outside of height to be a real problem on that side of the floor.
With rebounding I honestly watch and wonder if this kid has any idea that he's between 270 - 280 lbs. A box out would go an extremely long way with this kid.
I feel like i might be nitpicking because he's sooooo young but I see where he can be if he sat down and put the effort in completely and he's essentially just scratching the surface on that end despite the numbers.
Agreed with all of this. Im not sure Ive seen him box out once this year. The dude could end up being an elite rebounder on the NBA level if he boxes out (even without out that, he will still probably be an 8+ a game type guy). Defensively like the first possession of the game I saw him kind of get into a defensive crouch, but was never seen again. His defense only relies on his athleticism and nothing more at the moment. But he is such a freak athlete that he ends up making 7-10 huge defensive plays a game.
But the weird thing is, things like the two things above is also one of the reasons I have him creeping near that AD/KD/Oden level of prospect. If he adds some of these fundamentals to his game, I can see huge improvements to his game which is crazy to think about. He also doesnt have the work ethic questions or is head screwed on right questions like you got from guys like Michael Beasley. Yesterday SDSU clearly gameplanned on stopping Zion and even with that and in just 18 minutes of play, the dude still made a really big impact.
