2013-14:
Al Jefferson: 35 minutes per game, 73 games started -- Al's first year, back when he put up 20-10 per and made 3rd team All-NBA.
2014-15:
30.6 mpg, 61 starts -- Had his season derailed by injuries and the Lance Stephenson show, was still good for 16.6 ppg.
2015-16:
Al Jefferson: 23.3 mpg, 18 starts
Cody Zeller: 24.3 mpg, 60 starts -- Big Al down to 12 ppg, traded in the offseason with the team finding a new starting center.
DECEMBER 5, 2016
Zeller is averaging five screen assists per game, the third best mark in the NBA this season. He's doing so despite averaging just 25 minutes, 10 less than Washington Wizards center Marcin Gortat, whose 6.4 screen assists per game lead the league.
Hornets head coach Steve Clifford has seen the entirety of Zeller's evolution since he assumed his perch in 2013. Clifford, an NBA lifer, had previously spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Magic, where he had helped build an offense around Dwight Howard's prowess as the big man in the pick-and-roll.
The results speak for themselves. Zeller is now more involved in the Hornets offense than ever before. He's averaging a career high 10.5 points per game on a blistering 59.1 percent from the field, with many of those looks coming as the roll man following a screen.
But the most telling stats are how much more potent the Hornets have been with Zeller on the floor: They're outscoring opponents by 13.1 points per 100 possessions with him in the game and are 18.6 points per 100 possessions when he plays versus when he sits, both team highs, per Basketball-Reference.com.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2679310-the-art-of-the-pick-the-nbas-most-popular-play-requires-an-unsung-hero
Unfortunately this was shortly before injuries hit and the narrative became Zeller's "inability to stay healthy" to go with the Hornets' inability to win without him. I distinctly recall the reddit boards hailing Tyler Hansbrough as a franchise savior, the thinking being he could replicate Cody's PnR prowess whenever Cody inevitably lost time to injuries. Only Tyler didn't get much of a chance to prove it his one season with the team, also his last in the league.
Still on-tangent, the other "traditional" big man often mentioned in the same breath as Steve:
Vucevic is now a mismatch on offense versus almost every center in the league, as many are hesitant to defend in the midrange and behind the three-point line.
This season the Magic continued to craft a defensive strategy to complement Vucevic’s best traits: his footwork and his basketball IQ. It helps when you have defensive genius like coach Steve Clifford at the helm and when healthy, Jonathan Isaac helps cover up many of his faults.
What Vucevic brings to the floor on offense is most important, as the Magic already showed they can be one of the best defensive teams in the league. Pairing an uptempo, modern offense with their already stout defense is the number one goal going into next season.
There is nothing complex about his best plays. He simply sets a strong screen — his 5.8 screen assists per 75 possessions ranks him in the 94th percentile in the league, according to Basketball Index — and goes to the open space.
https://orlandomagicdaily.com/2020/09/27/2020-orlando-magic-player-evaluations-nikola-vucevics-game-continues-to-evolve/
Oversimplifying things but basically Vuc is super-sized Cody Zeller with a jump shot. To the point, for most of his coaching career the signature Steve Clifford big man has been a mobile big useful in the PnR and only briefly a traditional low-post bruiser.
To the point, asking Mark Williams and Kai Jones to move their feet, set picks on the perimeter, and catch lobs at the rim should be within their abilities a lot more than seeing them become back-to-the-basket maestros. Under Steve, Cody Zeller became the team's starting center his third year in the league. Physically Cody has nothing on this crop of young bigs, so what's holding them back....
