Well, we are talking about a guy who hasn't even proven he's an NBA player, so there's that...
Yes, but here’s what we do know.
He was the Center of the year and lead the league in rebounding last year at 18/19 years old. He looked to be an energy big who could grab boards and dunk, but that was about it. Well he came back this season as an all around beast. He lead the ABA league in rebounding again and was 2nd in scoring. He put on an all star show. He posted better numbers this year in the ABA league than both Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Jokic did, and we already know that they can both play in the NBA. He has moved to a more completive league and is showing that he can be just as effective there as well.
When we drafted him the hope was for a slightly more agile Zeller to be an effective back up. He is looking like he may end up being our starting center sooner rather than latter. Zizic wasn’t supposed to be this good this year. Will he be this good in the NBA maybe, maybe not, but he is defiantly good enough for serious rotational minutes right now. Sure he will have to learn the schemas to stay on the floor and he’ll make rookie mistakes but he is going to be a player. Three Euro league games have convinced me.
He wasn’t supposed to get many minutes behind Semih Erden. In his first game playing less minutes than Erden, Zizic got more rebounds and the same amount of points. In the second game again playing less minutes he got more points and more rebounds. In the third game he played more minutes than Erden and got more points and rebounds again. Semih Erden is no super star but he played rotational minutes in the NBA. He is older and likely a better player now than he was when he was in the NBA. He was an all star last year in Euro league. Zizic just walked on to the team and took his minutes.
He is still rebounding like a beast in a more completive league and is still dominating in the paint. So he hasn’t played in the NBA yet. I’m still really excited about him as a player, and so are a lot of people on this board. There is good reason to be excited about this kid.