Z-Rex: The Cody Zeller Thread

[JDR720]

trade McBob to someone that needs a facilitator big....if anyone needs one not very common need...start Al at PF when he gets back, start Biz at C, Adrian backs up Biz and Zeller backs up Al

I wonder what kind of deal could Cho swing for McRoberts...maybe Shumpert? The Knicks need as many facilitators as well as big bodies as possible

yea that would also help our guard depth, if i was Cho i would do it...problem is the Knicks seem to want a kings ransom for Shumpert

[lmcguir5]

trade McBob to someone that needs a facilitator big....if anyone needs one not very common need...start Al at PF when he gets back, start Biz at C, Adrian backs up Biz and Zeller backs up Al

I wonder what kind of deal could Cho swing for McRoberts...maybe Shumpert? The Knicks need as many facilitators as well as big bodies as possible

yea that would also help our guard depth, if i was Cho i would do it...problem is the Knicks seem to want a kings ransom for Shumpert

I agree with JDR. The Knicks were talking a supposed Shumpert for Faried deal, no way that equates to a Shumpert for McRoberts trade. The Knicks are going to want to maximize his value while he's still an asset. I like that they are looking into the market now, but I'm not buying at their current price.

[mrknowitall215]

David Thorpe's Top 10 Rookies

1. Michael Carter-Williams
2. Steven Adams
3. Nate Wolters
4. Vitor Faverani
5. Mason Plumlee
6. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
7. Ben McLemore
8. Victor Oladipo
9. Tim Hardaway Jr.

10. Cody Zeller - Zeller gets consistent minutes in Charlotte, but he has a lot of work to do if he wants to help his team on offense. He is too prone to take long 2s and is not finishing well inside either, making less than half of his attempts next to the rim. If he looked to shot-fake and attack off those long 2s he'd save himself from many misses and probably draw some fouls. He is an athletic player who is not often using that athleticism.

[HornetJail]

David Thorpe's Top 10 Rookies

1. Michael Carter-Williams
2. Steven Adams
3. Nate Wolters
4. Vitor Faverani
5. Mason Plumlee
6. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
7. Ben McLemore
8. Victor Oladipo
9. Tim Hardaway Jr.

10. Cody Zeller - Zeller gets consistent minutes in Charlotte, but he has a lot of work to do if he wants to help his team on offense. He is too prone to take long 2s and is not finishing well inside either, making less than half of his attempts next to the rim. If he looked to shot-fake and attack off those long 2s he'd save himself from many misses and probably draw some fouls. He is an athletic player who is not often using that athleticism.

This draft is being headlined by the 11th, 12th, and 38th picks so far? And the 1st top 10 picks on the list are KCP (8th pick) and McLemore (7th pick) at numbers 6 and 7. This draft class is already an even bigger trainwreck that I'd anticipated. This draft is every bit as bad as the Kenyon Martin draft (2000?).

[Amateur Wannabe]

What Cody needs is some more upper body strength, some more confidence and some time. That kid is OK, I am very optimistic about his future. Athleticism, skill, IQ, attitude... but not over night. Not this season. He'll continue to struggle, but he's gonna figure out that he belongs in the NBA, gonna start to find his way through, and that's the most I expect from him 2013/2014. A really nice pick for the Cats.

Spoiler:

Btw hi guys, my first post in the forum I've been following for some time, now I decided to register and share some "wisdom"

[JDR720]

What Cody needs is some more upper body strength, some more confidence and some time. That kid is OK, I am very optimistic about his future. Athleticism, skill, IQ, attitude... but not over night. Not this season. He'll continue to struggle, but he's gonna figure out that he belongs in the NBA, gonna start to find his way through, and that's the most I expect from him 2013/2014. A really nice pick for the Cats.

Spoiler:

Btw hi guys, my first post in the forum I've been following for some time, now I decided to register and share some "wisdom"

Hello guy

[BigSlam]

What Cody needs is some more upper body strength, some more confidence and some time. That kid is OK, I am very optimistic about his future. Athleticism, skill, IQ, attitude... but not over night. Not this season. He'll continue to struggle, but he's gonna figure out that he belongs in the NBA, gonna start to find his way through, and that's the most I expect from him 2013/2014. A really nice pick for the Cats.

Spoiler:

Btw hi guys, my first post in the forum I've been following for some time, now I decided to register and share some "wisdom"

Great to have you here!

When you get a chance, pay a visit to this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=53&t=1238256&start=135

[amcoolio]

BrotherDave is making us look stupid. CoZ and Taylor are doing completely 180° how they were playing in the offseason. I don't get it. Is it because they aren't starting and can't get into the flow of the game?

Cody has the talent and athleticism to be a serviceable player in this league, but its becoming painful to watch him not adjust game after game. Time to give up on becoming a stretch 4 for the moment and play in the post to get your game going.

Can you imagine what would be happening if any of the rookies drafted behind Zeller were playing any better?

[HornetJail]

BrotherDave is making us look stupid. CoZ and Taylor are doing completely 180° how they were playing in the offseason. I don't get it. Is it because they aren't starting and can't get into the flow of the game?

Cody has the talent and athleticism to be a serviceable player in this league, but its becoming painful to watch him not adjust game after game. Time to give up on becoming a stretch 4 for the moment and play in the post to get your game going.

Can you imagine what would be happening if any of the rookies drafted behind Zeller were playing any better?

You guys know I was one of the bigger Zeller fans on this board, and I still am- I think he can be a poor man's David Lee who actually knows what defense is, someday and that is about as good as it gets in this draft.

That said, he's off to a rough start- shooting 34% and averaging 9/8 per 36 doesn't cut it. I expected better numbers, but he's getting the minutes I expected him to get, and he's playing roughly the level of defense I expected. Offensively, I definitely thought he'd be doing more, particularly without Al taking up 30+ minutes while he was out, but hey, we're only 15 games in.

In these 15 games, we've had guys turn on Clifford, get pissed at Kemba and Sessions for coming into the season a little rough, turn on Hendo big time, get frustrated by JT and Zeller, worry immensely about MKG and Biz, even get mad at McBob for playing too well. If this board was any indication lately, Jeff Adrien would be the 2nd best player by default behind Al, given the negativity surrounding everyone else. Yet we're still 7-8. With the exception of tonight's game and the Phoenix game, we're beating the teams we should beat and the majority of our losses have been the result of one-quarter collapses usually caused by the poor play from the bench.

tl;dr- lighten up, we're 15 games into the season and we're right around .500 in a conference where a .400 team will make the playoffs - things could be worse, much worse.

[catch20two]

BrotherDave is making us look stupid. CoZ and Taylor are doing completely 180° how they were playing in the offseason. I don't get it. Is it because they aren't starting and can't get into the flow of the game?

Cody has the talent and athleticism to be a serviceable player in this league, but its becoming painful to watch him not adjust game after game. Time to give up on becoming a stretch 4 for the moment and play in the post to get your game going.

Can you imagine what would be happening if any of the rookies drafted behind Zeller were playing any better?

You guys know I was one of the bigger Zeller fans on this board, and I still am- I think he can be a poor man's David Lee who actually knows what defense is, someday and that is about as good as it gets in this draft.

That said, he's off to a rough start- shooting 34% and averaging 9/8 per 36 doesn't cut it. I expected better numbers, but he's getting the minutes I expected him to get, and he's playing roughly the level of defense I expected. Offensively, I definitely thought he'd be doing more, particularly without Al taking up 30+ minutes while he was out, but hey, we're only 15 games in.

In these 15 games, we've had guys turn on Clifford, get pissed at Kemba and Sessions for coming into the season a little rough, turn on Hendo big time, get frustrated by JT and Zeller, worry immensely about MKG and Biz, even get mad at McBob for playing too well. If this board was any indication lately, Jeff Adrien would be the 2nd best player by default behind Al, given the negativity surrounding everyone else. Yet we're still 7-8. With the exception of tonight's game and the Phoenix game, we're beating the teams we should beat and the majority of our losses have been the result of one-quarter collapses usually caused by the poor play from the bench.

tl;dr- lighten up, we're 15 games into the season and we're right around .500 in a conference where a .400 team will make the playoffs - things could be worse, much worse.

I can only speak for myself but I'm frustrated with how everything has unfolded because I believe we could be 10-5 right now instead of 7-8. Off the top of my head I can remember 4 games that Clifford has blown with his substitutions but I'll just say that 3 because sometimes things unfold.

As far as Zeller I'm just disappointed in the pick because I never advocated it to begin with but I thought he would be better than he's shown. He's looking worst than a rookie Biz who was totally lost and raw.

[Marvel]

I still like the Zeller pick. He has been playing poorly and that can be frustrating, but that's to be expected from a rookie. I don't know what people's expectation were of him this season, but maybe we need to lower them a little bit and just be patient with his development. He'll be alright. The tools are there, he just needs to learn how to use them at the top level.

[catch20two]

I still like the Zeller pick. He has been playing poorly and that can be frustrating, but that's to be expected from a rookie. I don't know what people's expectation were of him this season, but maybe we need to lower them a little bit and just be patient with his development. He'll be alright. The tools are there, he just needs to learn how to use them at the top level.

I expected better than 30% shooting and less than double figure per 36 stats.

[Marvel]

That's what i said about Hendo and Kemba and pretty much everyone on this roster.

[Liver_Pooty]

Every single draft pick is struggling from this psst year. Zeller will be fine..

[LamarMatic7]

Besides the point I made in the Celtics GT about the way our offense is run, he simply isn't strong enough yet. It seems like he can't finish those drives to the basket, he likes to make. Either he travels on the first step after making the pump fake or he flies in to the opponent bigs and isn't able to hold his ground. I think the talent of making those Dan Issel/Antawn Jamison-esque layups around rim won't go anywhere. Zeller simply needs to get used to the officiating, tempo and opponent strength of the NBA.

[Amateur Wannabe]

C'mon guys, we can't expect him to adapt after 15 games in NBA, not to mention his present physical inferiority. As I already said, I expect nothing from Cody this season. An occasional good game and that would be it. It's simply too much for him, he can't play, shoot etc. with confidence when he's that easily pushed around. So he'll travel, throw bricks, won't go for rebounds at time, turnover... but that kid has some game, I particulary like his awareness in defence, he's shown a few times. I didn't see any real issue, except that upper body being not-NBA for now. The rest will just come with time.

[theman]

Besides the point I made in the Celtics GT about the way our offense is run, he simply isn't strong enough yet. It seems like he can't finish those drives to the basket, he likes to make. Either he travels on the first step after making the pump fake or he flies in to the opponent bigs and isn't able to hold his ground. I think the talent of making those Dan Issel/Antawn Jamison-esque layups around rim won't go anywhere. Zeller simply needs to get used to the officiating, tempo and opponent strength of the NBA.

From what I saw in the game last night against the Celtics he is spending too much time camped outside the 3 point line and looks very uninvolved in the offense. He is 7 feet tall, he shouldn't be 25 feet from the basket. I understand he is supposed to be stretching the floor to open lanes for Kimba. But he needs to work closer to the basket.

[mrknowitall215]

How is he a stretch 4 if he don't even shoot threes?!? I think every PF in the NBA shoot midrange jumpers.

Good question

[Eoghan]

He needs much better handles (and shooting). He's never going to be a low post banger, he just doesn't have the mindset for it, abhors contact. So if he wants to avoid becoming a journeyman, energy off the bench guy for his career, he needs to actually become a stretch 4. They can post him up when he has mismatches but that's pretty rare b/c most PFs are big/strong enough to keep CZ off the block.

[mrknowitall215]

My evaluation of Cody Zeller is that he has a good attitude towards the game where he's good for team morale, but he definitely was a reach at #4, and if he's not capable of turning into a stretch PF in which it currently appears that he is not then he's basically a ill fit for the core group that the team constructed beforehand. Theoretically, I'm saying that he was a bad pick. If Cho wasn't going to swing for a player with high upside (Nerlens Noel), then he should've at least drafted somebody that could provide strength to the teams weaknesses, like 3-point shooting (Ben McLemore). So far Zeller been a montrosity, not showing me anything that even I thought he was somewhat capable of, like post moves