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9. The grunt work of Cody Zeller

Meet Cody Zeller: perfectly acceptable starting center and fifth option on a good team. On some nights, you barely notice him; Zeller doesn't get to do much with the ball, and Charlotte's notion of turning him into a jump-shooter died when Zeller shifted from power forward to rim-rolling center last season.

But the guy has his fingerprints all over most Charlotte baskets. He's a nasty screen-setter, and he loves that part of the job. He's fast covering short distances, which means he can set one screen for Kemba Walker, scurry back around, and set one or two more in the span of just a few seconds.

He runs the floor like a madman, torture for opposing plodders who just want to take one damn possession off to catch their breath. He's hyperactive, and he never stops. It's not fun to play against him.

He's also learned the kinds of shots he'll get in Charlotte's offense, and worked to master them -- including an in-between floater, a tricky shot for big men:


Zeller is never going to be a star, or close to it. He's a so-so rebounder for his position, and he doesn't deter anyone from attacking the rim. But he works his butt off, and he's almost always in the right position on both ends. He is the kind of worker bee who just helps you win games.

fatlever wrote:Lowe dropped in a Cody mention in his most recent "10 Things"

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18287165/zach-lowe-10-things-like-featuring-marc-gasol-kawhi-leonard-more-nba

9. The grunt work of Cody Zeller

Meet Cody Zeller: perfectly acceptable starting center and fifth option on a good team. On some nights, you barely notice him; Zeller doesn't get to do much with the ball, and Charlotte's notion of turning him into a jump-shooter died when Zeller shifted from power forward to rim-rolling center last season.

But the guy has his fingerprints all over most Charlotte baskets. He's a nasty screen-setter, and he loves that part of the job. He's fast covering short distances, which means he can set one screen for Kemba Walker, scurry back around, and set one or two more in the span of just a few seconds.

He runs the floor like a madman, torture for opposing plodders who just want to take one damn possession off to catch their breath. He's hyperactive, and he never stops. It's not fun to play against him.

He's also learned the kinds of shots he'll get in Charlotte's offense, and worked to master them -- including an in-between floater, a tricky shot for big men:


Zeller is never going to be a star, or close to it. He's a so-so rebounder for his position, and he doesn't deter anyone from attacking the rim. But he works his butt off, and he's almost always in the right position on both ends. He is the kind of worker bee who just helps you win games.

fatlever wrote:Lowe dropped in a Cody mention in his most recent "10 Things"

He runs the floor like a madman, torture for opposing plodders who just want to take one damn possession off to catch their breath.

Clifford would like to see Zeller's rebounding numbers improve, particularly on defense because the team is not particularly tall.

But that appears to be getting better.

He has 21 rebounds in his past two games after averaging 6.1 in his previous nine December games.

"Outside of Mike (Kidd-Gilchrist) and Nic (Batum) we don't have guys at their position who are good at that, and it's a critical part of the game," Clifford said. "We have had a couple games when we played good enough on defense (to win) but lost because of our rebounding."

yosemiteben wrote:Steve Reed with a nice but relatively fluff piece on Zeller: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3d16257ea4f64d3badf584317e6f6de0/zellers-move-center-paying-dividends-hornets

Most interesting to me are the comments about Cody's rebounding.

Clifford would like to see Zeller's rebounding numbers improve, particularly on defense because the team is not particularly tall.

But that appears to be getting better.

He has 21 rebounds in his past two games after averaging 6.1 in his previous nine December games.

"Outside of Mike (Kidd-Gilchrist) and Nic (Batum) we don't have guys at their position who are good at that, and it's a critical part of the game," Clifford said. "We have had a couple games when we played good enough on defense (to win) but lost because of our rebounding."

Looks like when Cliff was talking about physicality, he might have been talking about Cody's work on the boards. Believe it was after the WAS game where Cody had 2 boards in 30 minutes that Cliff went off about our physicality, and the next two games Cody grabbed 10 and 11 boards.

yosemiteben wrote:Steve Reed with a nice but relatively fluff piece on Zeller: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3d16257ea4f64d3badf584317e6f6de0/zellers-move-center-paying-dividends-hornets

Most interesting to me are the comments about Cody's rebounding.

Clifford would like to see Zeller's rebounding numbers improve, particularly on defense because the team is not particularly tall.

But that appears to be getting better.

He has 21 rebounds in his past two games after averaging 6.1 in his previous nine December games.

"Outside of Mike (Kidd-Gilchrist) and Nic (Batum) we don't have guys at their position who are good at that, and it's a critical part of the game," Clifford said. "We have had a couple games when we played good enough on defense (to win) but lost because of our rebounding."

Looks like when Cliff was talking about physicality, he might have been talking about Cody's work on the boards. Believe it was after the WAS game where Cody had 2 boards in 30 minutes that Cliff went off about our physicality, and the next two games Cody grabbed 10 and 11 boards.

Zombiesonics wrote:theres also this guy jeremy lamb who leads the team TRB% lol, but i guess those don't count!

Braggins wrote:Guys, what if Cody had a man bun similar to Hawes?

Braggins wrote:Guys, what if Cody had a man bun similar to Hawes?

yosemiteben wrote:

Braggins wrote:Guys, what if Cody had a man bun similar to Hawes?

mindblown.gif

More realistic - let's get Belinelli a JLin double bun.

Braggins wrote:Guys, what if Cody had a man bun similar to Hawes?