Not sure where you get the "below-average athlete". He certainly doesn't appear that to me. Much more athletic than a guy like Perkins. And he does appear to have a decent mid range game, and certainly is a good free throw shooter.
Looking at the ample video materials provided in this thread, Zizic looks neither particularly quick closing up space under the basket, or particularly explosive getting off the ground for rebounds or blocks. I haven't seen anything that suggests he's particularly agile, either. I think the below-average athlete is probably fair.
Here's what Draft Express has to say about him:
NBA teams may wonder what it is that separates Zizic as a starting caliber prospect, as there is nothing extraordinary about his size, length, athleticism or skill-set, even if there's nothing particularly deficient about any of those areas either. - Source: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Ante-Zizic-68722/ ©DraftExpress
So I'd guess average is probably appropriate.
Come on. That scouting report also raves about his "strong leaping ability", and in my book he is "adequate" in this department at best.
Okay, you're right.
So the article was published about a moth after he turned 19. It looks at his play as an 18 year old. Right now the people that are all aboard the Zizic Hype train are looking at his play at 19 and now at 20. He is not the same player now, at 20, that he was at 18. In fact the positive reports about him talk about how fast he has improved and some even how surprising it is that he was able to improve the areas of his game the way he has and as fast as he has.
18 year old Zizic looked to be a fringe NBA rotational player at best.
19 year old Zizic posted better Stats at 19 then every European big man (Center) that has come to the NBA except for Darko Milicic, who really failed because he was nuts and hd zero mental aptitude for the NBA game.
20 year old Zizic looks like a good NBA rotational player at worst and more likely a quality NBA starter.