Just watched this full game for Ziga Samar:
2:48 he's a scrapper! Gets in there near the basket, helps out on D and blocks the shot at the rim
3:13 wow, hell of a steal, just goes hard after the ball with tenacity and grit, gets the steal, takes it hard on the break (good but not great speed with the ball in the open floor), then scores at the rim for the and-1
7:07 this is nice. crafty move with the dribble to get into the lane, then he stops, uses an up fake to egt his man into the air, then leans in and makes the scoop shot with left hand
8:00 this is a little thing but I like how he is savvy enough to know JUST how physical/aggressive he can get right here without fouling - when he tries to steal it away from his man. I'm telling you. If he had been just a tad more physical/aggressive here, that's a foul. But if he had been any less physical/aggressive then there's no way he's getting the steal. Although he didn't get the steal on this play, if he plays this type of defense every time, he's going to get his share of steals, no question. I like the tenacity, really getting up on his man, pressuring the ball.
35:38 dude just makes really good decisions with the ball. After getting outlet pass, pushes it really hard on the break to try and get a good look in transition, then sees they don't have numbers so slows it down, then sees a potential secondary break opportunity in the low post, so he is looking at the teammate posting up but sees he isn't really that open while also seeing he's got a teammate top of key who's WIDE open so he quickly hits him with a good pass, and boom, the due nails the 3. Good basketball!
42:06 he's so damn scrappy. Look at him getting in there, going for the ball, knocks it loose and it goes right to a teammate for the steal
49:14 too high on the lob pass here, but I bet Rob woulda caught it!
49:54 look at the help defense here. He's on his man out on the wing, but sees the pass going to the open big man under the basket so he sprints like a bat outta hell to the big - even though Samar is much smaller, he is so feisty that he forces the big to kick the ball back out. It's then rotated to the corner, and Samar again sprints like a bat outta hell to get out there and contest the 3 - he contests it well, and the 3 is no good
50:16 quick pass to teammate who then makes another quick pass to the open shooter for a 3. Give Samar a hocker assist on that one!
1:10:45 beautiful play here. Gets them into their offense with good pace, comes off the screen and drives - then uses a nice hesitation dribble move to get into the lane, then just when the help defender commits (leaving the help defender's man open under the basket), Samar makes the bounce pass right on time and on target for the easy layup
1:27:30 game is on the line, other team up by 1 but opposing PG just goes at Samar, gets by him off the dribble, Samar gets turned around, busts his ass to recover but the dude scores on him at the rim. He's quick and scrappy but just now quite able to prevent this guy from scoring on him
1:29:09 oh man, plays the defense like a fiddle here, perfect execution on the pick n roll perfect pass to lob man for the bucket. This basket put his team up by 1 with just under a minute left!
Bottom line? Pass first floor general, sets his teammates up for quality looks. Facilitates, runs the offense. Pretty good for a guy who just turned 21 and is playing in the best pro league in europe. Scrappy defender. Shot 47% from 3. Could end up being a steal. The last PG to come out of Slovenia. You may have heard of him, his name is Luka Doncic. Not saying Ziga is the next Luka, no way. But has Ziga trained with Luka? Probably. Does Ziga have that same killer/fearless mentality? Maybe.
Most mocks don't even have him getting drafted. So we could possibly get him as an UDFA..
