Z-Rex: The Cody Zeller Thread

MasterIchiro · Post #741 » by **MasterIchiro** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:26 am

McLemore
Bennett
Zeller

Post #742 » by **fatlever** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:30 am

MasterIchiro wrote:McLemore
Bennett
Zeller

you're not the least bit concerned with mclemore after seeing him in summer league? seems like he has further to go than some previously thought. he'll probably be limited to spot up shooting and transition offense his first few years. doesnt look like a guy who can initiate offense, create his own offense off the dribble in half court or create for anyone else. that being said, i still understand the lure of such a great stroke and great athleticism in a league living on 3pt shooting.

amcoolio · Post #743 » by **amcoolio** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:36 am

It'd be between Oladipo and Zeller. Bennett could be good, but will probably take a good 4 years. Want no part of Mclemore who is has the BBIQ of a volleyball

Post #744 » by **BigSlam** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:46 am

fatlever wrote:knowing what we know now, if the draft was held tomorrow and we had the #1 pick, who would you take for us? i'd have a hard time not taking zeller, even though i love oladipo and we havent seen bennett yet.

#1 Oladipo (after watching him in SL I'm even more convinved he is going to be a big time star - and a winner)

#2 Rex

And I am liking me some Rex.

Eoghan · Post #745 » by **Eoghan** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 7:27 pm

fatlever wrote:knowing what we know now, if the draft was held tomorrow and we had the #1 pick, who would you take for us? i'd have a hard time not taking zeller, even though i love oladipo and we havent seen bennett yet.

Oladipo
Noel
Bennett
McLemore
Zeller

GaZeller didn't show me anything in SL that I didn't already know. He's got to bang with the big boys without getting floor burns before my questions get answered.

HornetJail · Post #746 » by **HornetJail** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:28 pm

I'm convinced Zeller would be taken #1.

I have yet to see more than a handful of people praising the Bennett pick.
Oladipo is the obvious #2 choice, since he obviously looks pretty good, but I'm still not sold on him.
Porter doesn't make sense for us, plus he didn't impress in the SL.
Len has ankle issues.
Noel was red-flagged for his knee issues.
McLemore doesn't look all that great either.

BadMofoPimp · Post #747 » by **BadMofoPimp** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 9:00 pm

After Summer League, I have to say Oladipo then Zeller. Actually, Zeller was one of the only players to interview twice with the Magic. So, they considered him at #2. But, Oladipo has Wade lite ceiling with a decent floor. He is already hitting NBA 3's at a decent rate and plays exceptional defense. But, I really like Zeller as the 2nd best player in the draft with Bennet 3rd. Also, I hated Noel from the beginning. Way overrated of which I knew GM's were overrating him to teams for potential trades.

Liver_Pooty · Post #748 » by **Liver_Pooty** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 11:43 pm

Nice video. Makes me happy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SbcyixP0gg[/youtube]

Elden Payton · Post #749 » by **Elden Payton** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 12:16 am

I'd take Zeller #1 in a heartbeat.

MasterIchiro · Post #750 » by **MasterIchiro** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:30 am

Good God he looks smooth - left hand - right hand - post moves - drives - pull up jumpers - great positioning - finishes soft or strong. This guy has a bag of tricks. No other pick in the draft has a better chance to become a star. Some have more upside but I really really like his chances of becoming a borderline star or star player. He's very competitive too it seems - follows plays - sees openings - exploits opponents - wants the ball.

I'd like to see Jeffrey Taylor's summer league highlights as well.

Liver_Pooty · Post #751 » by **Liver_Pooty** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:39 am

MasterIchiro wrote:Good God he looks smooth - left hand - right hand - post moves - drives - pull up jumpers - great positioning - finishes soft or strong. This guy has a bag of tricks. No other pick in the draft has a better chance to become a star. Some have more upside but I really really like his chances of becoming a borderline star or star player. He's very competitive too it seems - follows plays - sees openings - exploits opponents - wants the ball.

I'd like to see Jeffrey Taylor's summer league highlights as well.

Now that's what I'm talking about. Off the McLemore train and onto the Zeller one. I like it!

Elden Payton · Post #752 » by **Elden Payton** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:57 am

For the record I think the only two "star" players to come out of this draft will be Zeller and McLemore.

HornetJail · Post #753 » by **HornetJail** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 4:33 am

Sik Infant wrote:For the record I think the only two "star" players to come out of this draft will be Zeller and McLemore.

Zeller and either Shabazz or Burke for me. I don't think either are locks to be anything more than decent starters, but they're the next most likely ones IMO.

Liver_Pooty · Post #754 » by **Liver_Pooty** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 5:08 am

Biz Gilwalker wrote:
Sik Infant wrote:For the record I think the only two "star" players to come out of this draft will be Zeller and McLemore.

Zeller and either Shabazz or Burke for me. I don't think either are locks to be anything more than decent starters, but they're the next most likely ones IMO.

I think Muhammed will be a 10th man within 3 years honestly.

MasterIchiro · Post #755 » by **MasterIchiro** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 1:49 pm

Liver_Pooty wrote:
MasterIchiro wrote:Good God he looks smooth - left hand - right hand - post moves - drives - pull up jumpers - great positioning - finishes soft or strong. This guy has a bag of tricks. No other pick in the draft has a better chance to become a star. Some have more upside but I really really like his chances of becoming a borderline star or star player. He's very competitive too it seems - follows plays - sees openings - exploits opponents - wants the ball.

I'd like to see Jeffrey Taylor's summer league highlights as well.

Now that's what I'm talking about. Off the McLemore train and onto the Zeller one. I like it!

Not so fast.

I said "some have more upside".

McLemore has the ability to become a bigger star, it's just going to take a few years. He's far more raw than Cody Zeller therefore less likely to reach his full potential. He's one of the players with more upside than Cody but Cody has the best chance to maximize his potential. I'm fully on the Zeller train. He was probably the safest pick in the draft.

I've always loved Jeremy Lamb but he fell as well. He was incredibly raw coming out and spent a ton of time in the D-league. But if OKC can afford to stick with him a few years of development he may end up besting several players selected before him.

With Charlotte I think we decided no more projects so we selected Cody and signed Al. But we still left the team without a shooter. I think Jordan overrates Gerald Henderson. It also could have been an issue of too many holes to fill with only one pick. Hopefully we lock down some pure scorers like McLemore and Lamb in 2014.

lmcguir5 · Post #756 » by **lmcguir5** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 11:23 pm

At least with Zeller, you know what you're getting. I believe he could establish himself as a model of consistency, whereas McLemore, which he proved in SL, can be incredibly sporadic in scoring and field percentage. Consistency isn't necessarily noticed by all in the league because it isn't "sexy", but often its those guys that find themselves on playoff teams.

Granted hindsight is 20-20, I'm glad we didn't draft McLemore and I will sheepishly admit that I wanted him at 4. Zeller just fits our team so much better and I can't say enough how excited I am to see him progress this year

James Gatz · Post #757 » by **James Gatz** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 11:37 pm

I feel it's way to early to be bully or down on any of the rookies. I'm cautiously optimistic about Zeller.

Lottery_Mafia · Post #758 » by **Lottery_Mafia** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 8:15 am

Hey guys, this is my first post on the board, so thought I would open up with a big hitter. Some of you guys probably know me from BCP, thought I would start branching out a little bit!

1) Did we Settle for Zeller? I don't think this had anything to do with the other guys being a risk and Zeller being a "safe bet", I genuinely think we had him ranked above all those guys who was available to us at number 4. Cho and Higgins have both said they had targeted him in the draft and he was "their guy"

2) Why Didnt we Move Back? For all those saying why did we not trade back and pick up more assets, there is a reason. Say we moved back to 9 and Zeller got picked up by Sacramento or Philly jumped us to get him, we would have been stuck with someone who our FO may not have been happy with. Or, we would try to pull off a trade with whichever team did actually draft him and would be held to ransom. We should be happy to some extent that we got our guy, as I am sure there are a lot of teams out there who had to take their 2nd or 3rd choice.

3) In Cho We Trust: We should all be happy that the Zeller pick signals from MJ that he trusts Cho and is not going to become overly involved in the decision making process. It was widely reported that MJ was pushing for Oladipo or Mclemore and that Cho was trying to convince him they should go with Zeller. Even if you don't like the pick, it shows MJ is beginning to trust his FO and that people within the FO are not just appeasing Jordan and are willing to challenge him.

4) Wait to Judge Zeller: People say that the Zeller is okay, just not a good value pick at 4 what are you basing that off? The only time we have seen him play his something similar to what his NBA role will be was in summer league and he looked very accomplished. At Indiana he played Center and was a low post guy, he was not asked to step out to the perimeter or take many jump shots. In the NBA he will be playing mostly PF and will have a totally different role/playing style, so how can we judge his talent level when we only say him take 11 or 12 jump shots all year? If anything it shows that Zeller is willing to sacrifice his own stats and game for the team, which is a huge thing for us going forward.

5) Coaching Staff: If we have ever had a coaching staff to develop a bigman, teach rebounding, toughness, then it is the one we have right now. This will be a great environment for Zeller being around Clifford and Ely who have both worked with premier bigmen in the past. Our coaches are going to know how best to utilize Zeller's versatile skill set and get the most out of him.

6) Fit: Zeller has become the most skilled bigman we have ever had (apart from Diaw, but he was just a lazy, fat frenchman with shootaphobia). Last year every team showed so hard on Kemba because they knew that he had nobody to pass to, it was either Biz, Warrick or Adrian. Now with Zeller and Jefferson we legitimate offensively skilled bigs, if opposing teams don't recover they will make them pay, this gives Kemba more room on the PnR. Zeller also has the ability to stretch the floor with his shooting which will create space for MKG and will take some of the scoring pressure off him, MKG will be able to focus on his own game without having to worry about scoring. We all saw in the team USA scrimmage that when MKG is allowed to do his own thing he is actually more productive, putting that scoring pressure on him seems to hold him back.

7) Unique Ability: Some may call Zeller "solid" or a "decent starter" but I see him as quite a unique player, there are not many guys in the NBA with Zeller's mixture of size, athleticism and shooting. Obviously the shooting part must be proved in the NBA setting but by all accounts he has been shooting it very well during the workout process and summer league (small sample size). The are stretch 4s such as Ryan Anderson, but neither of those guys have the athleticism and speed of Zeller. This should allow Cody to put it on the floor when people close out on him or guard him too closely, however his jumper must go in at a respectable rate for that to happen. A shooting big with a great work ethic, good size and these athletic results (taken from the combine):

Zeller checked in at 7 feet (with shoes) and 230 pounds, with a body fat of 4.5 percent. He finished first in the modified lane agility drill (2.69 seconds) and the standing vertical leap (34.5 inches) and was sixth in the three-quarter-court sprint (3.15), faster than any power forward or center. Even his wingspan -- considered one of the biggest knocks against him -- measured better than expected, at 6-10¾ after earlier reports of 6-8.

Overall guys, I just want to point out the good areas of this pick, I know I have ignored the cons as that is not what I was trying to achieve.

Elden Payton · Post #759 » by **Elden Payton** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 8:48 am

@Lottery_Mafia

Excellent post, I agree on all counts and especially about him being a unique prospect.

Welcome to the board.

Post #760 » by **fatlever** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 4:49 pm

strange comparison, but offensively, zeller reminds me a lot of a younger jamison... a bigger, better defending jamison, who is also better in the high post as a passer. both guys move well w/out the ball and have great sense of spacing. both finish around the rim with either hand. both have a ton of moves around the rim to get their shot off. but the main similarity is both have this ability to catch the ball and quickly make a move to score. the ball doesnt stay in their hands more than a few seconds. their is no wasted dribbles or movement. jamison is the master at that.

now lets just hope zeller doesnt turn into a 3pt chucker in his older age.