Z-Rex: The Cody Zeller Thread

[MPM]

I was watching some of the videos I had made of Dan Issel when it suddenly hit me that him and Zeller are so alike. Yep, I just compared him to a 70s player.

Lamar, just watched your Youtube video where Issel scores 34. I see it and I like it.

Did you see the Zeller in him? Creative finisher around the rim, steady jumper and can really run up and down the court.

Just watched the vid - I think it's a nice comp. The form on their shot is even similar.

[Snidely FC]

Lamar, just watched your Youtube video where Issel scores 34. I see it and I like it.

Did you see the Zeller in him? Creative finisher around the rim, steady jumper and can really run up and down the court.

Just watched the vid - I think it's a nice comp. The form on their shot is even similar.

Agreed. David Thompson had 39 as Issell had 34 in that game as the Nugs lost to a PHI team led by Dr J and Doug Collins. Great stuff. Fun glimpses of my personal all time favorite Bobby Jones.

[Snidely FC]

Chad Ford ranks Cody Zeller 8th in his preseason ROY race:
1. Victor Olidipo
2. Anthony Bennett
3. C.J. McCollum
4. Michael Carter Williams
5. Ben McLemore
6. Kelly Olynyk
7. Trey Burke
8. Cody Zeller
9. Otto Porter
10. Cantshootavius Caldwell Pope

Totally disagree. I put Cody Zeller top 3.
MCW at 4? Pfft.

[fatlever]

oladipo - good chance he wins. he has hype, plus situation, plus talent, plus desire. i dont see afflalo getting in his way for more than a few weeks. afflalo will be traded or will come off the bench by december.

bennett - he'll start the season behind tristan, unless they play him at small forward. i just dont see the minutes there this year for bennett to put up the stats needed. plus, he will be 3rd on the team in hype.

mccollum - i think it would be hard to win the award as a 6th man. if the blazers are gunning for the playoffs, then mccollum will come off the bench behind matthews and lillard. the fact that they signed mo williams means he will probably not play any point guard this year. that leaves him backup minutes behind matthews. no chance.

carter-williams - he is going to get all the minutes he can handle from opening night. he'll have the ball in his hands a ton. he will take a bunch of shots, get a decent amount of rebounds, steals and assists. however his shooting percentages will be awful and his team will be awful. his situation wont be too different from what kemba went thru as a rookie and i dont remember anyone screaming for kemba to be rookie of the year. he'll finish on 1st team based on minutes alone.

ben mclemore - mclemore probably has the hardest situation to predict of this group. if the kings try to push towards winning to please cousins then they will probably lean more on the vet guards (of which they have a ton) - vasquez, thomas, thornton, salmons, fredette and brooks. the kings have so many point guards they will be playing several of them at shooting guard unless a trade is made. if mclemore starts in a shooting slump, the kings will have no choice but to either bench him since he does nothing else at this point or ride him at the expense of wins, which is probably not going to sit well with guys wanting to win.

olynyk - he will have the hype advantage of being a white guy playing in boston working to his advantage. he'll probably get plenty of minutes since the celtics are thin up front (bass, sullinger, humphries). however, i cant help but think that the league will figure him out in a month or two and take away what he does well and force him to adjust his game. that could take some time. look for a hot start, with lots of hype, followed by a big slump and rookie wall.

burke - like carter-williams he is going to get all the minutes he wants and will have the ball in his hands a ton. he has virtually no competition for minutes. but he he doesnt look a thousand percent better than he did in summer league, he has no chance. he'll have hype and minutes, but poor stats and wins.


i think oladipo is the clear favorite at this point. but if he falters then i think zeller has as good of a chance as any. the guys who will get tons of minutes are probably going to have some awful efficiency numbers. the guys who are playing behind vets arent going to get enough minutes.

[fatlever]

back to olynyk... the hype for him is getting a little out of control. if the roles were reversed and olynyk was a bobcat and zeller was a celtic, the zeller hype would be much greater.

summer league stats
olynyk
24.2mpg
18.0ppg
7.8rpg
2.4apg
1.8spg
0.4bpg
57.8%fg
68.4%ft

zeller
32.0mpg
16.3ppg
9.3rpg
1.5apg
0.3spg
0.8bpg
52.0%fg
72.2%ft

both players had fantastic summer leagues. both players are locks to get a ton of minutes. so why is the obviously lesser talented of the two players getting more hype than the other? its simple, boston.

[fatlever]

it will be interesting to see just how hard the celtics tank. they still have a lot of vets who can grind out 30 wins if they tried.

rondo, bradley, wallace, green and bass give you 5 vets who can still play at a high level. brooks, lee and crawford, two chuckers and a decent all-around guard off the bench. hump, if he can get motivated is another warm body down low. perhaps wilcox isnt dead yet. maybe sullinger is healthy this year.

that being said, its pretty shocking they are going into the season with only olynyk, wilcox and a brazilian rookie (faverani as their only centers)

[Eoghan]

olynyk - he will have the hype advantage of being a white guy playing in boston working to his advantage. he'll probably get plenty of minutes since the celtics are thin up front (bass, sullinger, humphries). however, i cant help but think that the league will figure him out in a month or two and take away what he does well and force him to adjust his game. that could take some time. look for a hot start, with lots of hype, followed by a big slump and rookie wall.

You can just as easily say this about Zeller to be honest.

back to olynyk... the hype for him is getting a little out of control. if the roles were reversed and olynyk was a bobcat and zeller was a celtic, the zeller hype would be much greater.

both players had fantastic summer leagues. both players are locks to get a ton of minutes. so why is the obviously lesser talented of the two players getting more hype than the other? its simple, boston.

Nah, Olynyk looks like a much better offensive player and was drafted at a better value, simple as that. In what way is KO obviously lesser talented than Zeller? CZ only trumps him in general athleticism.

[fatlever]

if olynyk was obviously as talented (perception wise) as zeller he would have been rated higher all year by draft experts and he would have been drafted higher.

i do expect the league to figure zeller out and take away what he does best, same as they will for olynyk. and when that happens i am going to put my money on the player who is a better athlete, better defender, better rebounder and the one who sprints up and down the floor like a maniac all game. so even in games when zeller is struggling to beat the defense he will contribute in more ways than olynyk.

and i would also ask, in what way is olynyk a "much better offensive player"?

[Liver_Pooty]

Zeller is just as good if not better than Olynyk offensively. Athletically, and defensively its not even close. Also Olynyk is two years older than Zeller. Zeller is a fsr superior prospect, and its not even close in my opinion.

[Elden Payton]

Zeller is just as good if not better than Olynyk offensively. Athletically, and defensively its not even close. Also Olynyk is two years older than Zeller. Zeller is a fsr superior prospect, and its not even close in my opinion.

Amen CZ fanclub co-president.

[Liver_Pooty]

Zeller is just as good if not better than Olynyk offensively. Athletically, and defensively its not even close. Also Olynyk is two years older than Zeller. Zeller is a fsr superior prospect, and its not even close in my opinion.

Amen CZ fanclub co-president.

Just speaking the truth my friend. Olynyks 24 inch vertical or whatever it was is a big red flag in my eyes. Someone with that kind of vertical, and with a wingspan of not even 6'10 (people thought Zellers wingspan was terrible..) better have a post game reminiscent of a young Duncan in order to be successful.

Edit: His no step vert was 24.5 and max vert was 29.5

Zellers no step vert was 35.5 and max vert was 37.5

That is a HUGE difference.

[Eoghan]

if olynyk was obviously as talented (perception wise) as zeller he would have been rated higher all year by draft experts and he would have been drafted higher.

Nah, he went to Gonzaga and nobody wants to draft the next Adam Morrison.

i do expect the league to figure zeller out and take away what he does best, same as they will for olynyk. and when that happens i am going to put my money on the player who is a better athlete, better defender, better rebounder and the one who sprints up and down the floor like a maniac all game. so even in games when zeller is struggling to beat the defense he will contribute in more ways than olynyk.

I don't think you can definitively say that either one is a better defender or rebounder at this point in time. Both have had pretty similar stats in college where minutes were comparable. Yeah, CZ runs like a deer but so does a lot of players. This is basketball, not track & field. KO runs pretty decent for a 7 footer anyway, it's not like they're tortoise and hare.

and i would also ask, in what way is olynyk a "much better offensive player"?

Mostly eye test, he just has noticeably better shooting mechanics, better touch around the basket, displayed 3 pt range/stretch 4 ability in college and can score in a variety of ways. I'm not a KO fan particularly and gun to my head probably preferred CZ to him in the draft b/c he has a bit more upside, I just think they're a lot closer in overall skill than some of you guys are willing to admit.

[Eoghan]

Zeller is just as good if not better than Olynyk offensively. Athletically, and defensively its not even close. Also Olynyk is two years older than Zeller. Zeller is a fsr superior prospect, and its not even close in my opinion.

Amen CZ fanclub co-president.

Just speaking the truth my friend. Olynyks 24 inch vertical or whatever it was is a big red flag in my eyes. Someone with that kind of vertical, and with a wingspan of not even 6'10 (people thought Zellers wingspan was terrible..) better have a post game reminiscent of a young Duncan in order to be successful.

Edit: His no step vert was 24.5 and max vert was 29.5

Zellers no step vert was 35.5 and max vert was 37.5

That is a HUGE difference.

That would be a huge difference if they were smalls. Attributes like these are just icing on the cake for 7 footers, they're hardly game-changers. Luis Scola can't jump over a sheet of paper but I'd take him over a jumping bean. KO's arm length isn't that much worse than CZ's, c'mon, mountain out of a molehill.

[Zonkerbl]

Olynyk's lack of athleticism means you can p&r him to death. Dude is not going to look good on defense.

"Better on offense" means he has better footwork, awareness, more polished looking moves, which I think is fair. He may win the roy because the people handing out awards are generally idiots who don't understand the importance of defense. Zeller is the better overall player.

[fatlever]

@BD - the point i was making originally still stands. lets say zeller and olynyk are roughly equal in terms of offensive talent and perhaps we dont yet know about rebounding. they put up great stats in summer league and they are both going to get a lot of playing time. all that being said, the only reason olynyk would be talked about in rookie of the year discussion ahead of zeller is the added hype of playing for the celtics. my point was that if zeller was on the celtics and olynyk was on the bobcats it would be zeller getting more hype. as always, there is a massive northeast media bias when it comes to stuff like this.

[fatlever]

Cody checking out downtown

[fatlever]

[amcoolio]

Cody seems to have heightened his release point for his jumpshot in the latest training camp video:

http://www.nba.com/bobcats/video/2013/1 ... v-2611653/

In summer league, he was starting his motion too low and releasing it a neck level. That would get his shot blocked a lot in the NBA

[Liver_Pooty]

Cody seems to have heightened his release point for his jumpshot in the latest training camp video:

http://www.nba.com/bobcats/video/2013/1 ... v-2611653/

In summer league, he was starting his motion too low and releasing it a neck level. That would get his shot blocked a lot in the NBA

That's a very nice looking shot for a PF.

[Eoghan]

Looks a lot smoother. Shoots a little to the side of his head but he looks like Jordan compared to MKG.