70sFan wrote:MyUniBroDavis wrote:Did anyone just see Zion brutalize gobert in that big loss
Zions performances can different teams r weird lol, but him being able to post up gobert better than random wings is kind of funny
His last bucket when he scored on Gobert in the post is amazing. It reminds me all beloved undersized post players like Dantley, Barkley, or Mason. Zion is a freak, can't wait to see him in his prime.
You really should have seen college zion, they’ve clearly told him to tone it down with the athleticism but he was unhinged back then
The 4th 2nd and first block really show the difference in how he was on defense in college vs nowadays, sure a lot of it was competition but there was a level or reckless hustle that was so fun to watch
#6 was just kinda wild because of how high he got on a swat, his head looks higher than wilts was in that 1962 clip which is insane considering Zion’s closer to Westbrook’s height than LeBrons lol
I’m curious how he does in a more spaced out offense, the pelicans are probably the worst team in the nba in terms of spacing, they have
one player shooting above league average from three which is kind of absurd when their future centerpiece, and they don’t have a four that can shoot respectably at all.
Given that he probably has the worst spacing in the nba and given his attributes it’s he needs it more than anyone else, he’s been pretty good after a slow start. Defense is gonna be a concern but he’s hitting
27.2-8-2.5 on 2.7 turnovers. 3 offensive rebounds a game and hitting 70% from the ft line too in that span. 62.2% from the field Too, and he’s gone against AD, Gobert, and Turner in that span, and even if he wasn’t scoring all his points against them their rim protection is gonna effect him and AD and Gobert both spent a lot of time on him (I didn’t watch the pacers game but he got a good and one right against turner to almost seal the deal before the top level choke. Since he’s
More encouragingly though is most of his turnovers come from offensive fouls (8 bad passes, 9 losing the ball, 10 offensive fouls)
Zion being top ten in The league in offensive rebounds a game despite playing with Adams who gobbles them up as well is pretty impressive
They’ve put him in a really different role this year, last year it was about getting him the ball on the move and they still do that, but they’re trying to have him initiate a lot more too. They’ve been using screening well to mitigate for a lack of spacing (That center screen on the big in the paint to stop them from helping)
At the end of the day zions probably gonna be a guy that drives first, so it’s good to see him develop in that area. For guys averaging more than 6 points off of drives (granted he’s at 6.1) which isn’t a lot, 38 guys fit this category, but he’s efficiency on drives, considering the horrible spacing around him, has been solid at 55.8%. good for 12th, and it’s trending upwards a bit in the past few games too. It’s not surprising buts he’s one of the best at fts drawn per drive too.
You’d expect that to go down with experience (for reference, if he kept up that pace for a year hed have 68, Shaqs career highest is 44)
Edit: somewhat wild stat, in these 6 past games he’s rebounded 9 of his misses
He’s 69/111 in that span (one three lol) but since he rebounded 9 misses, that means he’s more 69/102. They only failed to score once on his own shot offensive rebound In that span, where he got it and bledsoe missed the shot (normally he just puts it back in, although tbf that’s 6/7 since he missed, rebound, missed, rebounded again, and scored once or twice)
69/102 would be 67.6% instead of 62.6%. It might just be because I was looking for the name Zion and bias but it looks like his misses in general are rebounded by his team too, while it’s a super small sample, not indicicitive and a super noisy way at looking at rebounding impact, (Shaw’s negative in this regard despite being one of the best offensive rebounders) should be noted last year Zions teams offensive rebounding improved by 5% ish with him on the floor, this year 8% ish, which would be better than Drummond, in line with adams, 97 and 98 rodman.
He does seem too attract attention as an offensive rebounder even though I’m def not saying he’s in those guys levels
I don’t know how to find points in the paint on nba.com but he’s averaging 22.6 within 10 feet in that span, which would probably be the highest post wilt (for reference, Giannis peaks at 17ppg within 10 feet, Shaq was at 22.5 per game in the paint in 2000, but we don’t have within 10 feet numbers. At one point when Giannis was averaging 35 a game I think he was averaging more in the paint than shaq though
Considering how raw he is and that it’s his 36th game, if he keeps it up he’s in pretty good shape after a disappointing start
Zion having a solid postgame is so good for his development though because it gives him an option if they cut off his drive.
