Is Zizic what you expected?

[Tr1boy]

People here have unreasonable expectations. Zizic is NOT a solution to the the PF/C problems. He is a hard working close to the basket bruiser who could give 10 15 mins off the bench. That is all.

He looked quicker in Europe it could be the altitude.It is not a sea level he is a big  :)guy or i watched alot of his tape-and he was known for his motor
If Zizic is that slow for real -send him back to Europe or to hoop house where Tatum and Semi
trained-
Out of the whole lot all i would keep is Semi and Nader.

Bc most players in Europe sukk

Half of the SL players will be going over there and most of the time end up becoming the top players

You sure know european basketball........

Your excitement about yabu based on his chinese league stats is funny ....

Did you watch him play some D league games last season?

Watch that 1st...

[slamtheking]

I think his role will be to set get picks, roll to the basket, and antagonizng opposing bigs, making them work hard. He is very good at those 3 things.

We may have Zaza Pachulia 2.0 on our hands, which wouldn't be too shabby for a #23 pick. Again, the question is - can he be effective in the modern day NBA? Like Kmart12 put it, you have to be super athletic or super skilled to make a difference in today's game.

if this is what he turns out to be, we would have done fairly well for the 23 pick.  I hope he'll develop into a slightly better player than that. 

I think a bit of the disappointment expressed about him has more to do with the C's need for a good big man to add to the roster.  Zizic isn't ready from the looks of things.  maybe some time off after summer league and some coaching in camp will bring about some improvements.

[Bobshot]

The fact that 19yo Tatum is playing years above his age maybe makes everybody else look worse.

Zizic is only 20, and looks it. He is not the immediate solution up front. They need another big up there as well, with more experience. Somebody who can rebound and defend. Scoring not necessary.

[Androslav]

In his defense I will say that he had a very long season compared to his peers and the leap to the NBA is a challenge itself. Give him some time and believe in him. He is a hard worker with good mentality, he will breakthru at one point.

[ederson]

People here have unreasonable expectations. Zizic is NOT a solution to the the PF/C problems. He is a hard working close to the basket bruiser who could give 10 15 mins off the bench. That is all.

He looked quicker in Europe it could be the altitude.It is not a sea level he is a big  :)guy or i watched alot of his tape-and he was known for his motor
If Zizic is that slow for real -send him back to Europe or to hoop house where Tatum and Semi
trained-
Out of the whole lot all i would keep is Semi and Nader.

Bc most players in Europe sukk

Half of the SL players will be going over there and most of the time end up becoming the top players

You sure know european basketball........

Your excitement about yabu based on his chinese league stats is funny ....

Did you watch him play some D league games last season?

Watch that 1st...

I m sure he was as good as mickey was.

[Tr1boy]

People here have unreasonable expectations. Zizic is NOT a solution to the the PF/C problems. He is a hard working close to the basket bruiser who could give 10 15 mins off the bench. That is all.

He looked quicker in Europe it could be the altitude.It is not a sea level he is a big  :)guy or i watched alot of his tape-and he was known for his motor
If Zizic is that slow for real -send him back to Europe or to hoop house where Tatum and Semi
trained-
Out of the whole lot all i would keep is Semi and Nader.

Bc most players in Europe sukk

Half of the SL players will be going over there and most of the time end up becoming the top players

You sure know european basketball........

Your excitement about yabu based on his chinese league stats is funny ....

Did you watch him play some D league games last season?

Watch that 1st...

I m sure he was as good as mickey was.

Stronger, better shooter...watch the games 1st before talking gibberish

[ederson]

You are missing the point completely ..........

[billysan]

In his defense I will say that he had a very long season compared to his peers and the leap to the NBA is a challenge itself. Give him some time and believe in him. He is a hard worker with good mentality, he will breakthru at one point.

I agree with most of this.

I think working on footwork and more conditioning will help.

Running the floor next to Jaylen,  Jason  and Nader, most guys will look a little slow.

I am impressed with his immediate dunk on catches  near the basket. Decent hands and no hesitation.

I'll reserve my opinion for now and remain positive about his development.

[Tr1boy]

In his defense I will say that he had a very long season compared to his peers and the leap to the NBA is a challenge itself. Give him some time and believe in him. He is a hard worker with good mentality, he will breakthru at one point.

Celtics lack decent depth at 5 now..  Jonah Bolden would have been a nice 2nd round pickup . Danny should have tried to move up ....

[Chris22]

A slow white guy. I would never have picked him.

[Sophomore]

In his defense I will say that he had a very long season compared to his peers and the leap to the NBA is a challenge itself. Give him some time and believe in him. He is a hard worker with good mentality, he will breakthru at one point.

I agree with most of this.

I think working on footwork and more conditioning will help.

Running the floor next to Jaylen,  Jason  and Nader, most guys will look a little slow.

I am impressed with his immediate dunk on catches  near the basket. Decent hands and no hesitation.

I'll reserve my opinion for now and remain positive about his development.

I hope he develops into a rotation big. So far, he just looks like a guy whose coordination is trying to catch up to his height - like he had a growth spurt and he's still adjusting. If he doesn't get better, or figure out how to hide his limitations, he will have to go back to Europe. Which is a disappointment to me, at least.

[Kuberski33]

He's got a long way to go. I had hoped he might be able to help this season but right now I don't see it.  Game seems too fast for him at the present time and this is only Summer league.  I thought he was decent the first half vs Sixers but he struggled after that.  Conditioning doesn't look great.

[kozlodoev]

In his defense I will say that he had a very long season compared to his peers and the leap to the NBA is a challenge itself. Give him some time and believe in him. He is a hard worker with good mentality, he will breakthru at one point.

He better get ready for more of the same though, because the NBA season is twice as long as all the competitions in Europe taken together.

[saltlover]

He's what I expected.  He's 20, which is still young for even summer league.  If he played on a bad team he'd get enough minutes during the regular season to put up a bunch of double-doubles and everyone here would clamor for him.

I have not had much in the way of expectations for him this year.  10 minutes a game or so, hopefully more towards the end of the season.  If you want a better version of Ante Zizic for a year, you should hope Ainge gives Pachulia the room exception.  Collectively they could give about 25 minutes a night of energy at the 5, with Horford picking up still the bulk of his minutes at center.

But I knew some people would be disappointed when they seemed to honestly believe that Zizic would be an upgrade over Amir.  My hope has always been rookie Zizic would be as useful as second-year Perkins.  It would be a big deal if he could match third-year Perk as a rookie.

[kmart12]

I'm okay with writing him off because he wasn't a lottery pick; late first rounders are as hit or miss as seconds and it's okay for them to not pan out. Zizic's body and physical profile fit an older style of play and it's not surprising to see more athletic bigs like Bolden and Poythress grab boards over him. The only issue is that we brought him in for those needs and I don't think anyone was expecting a 20 and 10 big with a great offensive repertoire. If a supposed rebounder struggles to rebound against athleticism, then they're probably better suited for a different league due to the trend of the NBA's playstyle.

Additionally, has anyone noticed how much space Zizic gets in the paint in those highlight videos? Those defenses don't collapse as hard or react as quickly as we see in the NBA and it makes sense watching him try to operate down-low in Summer League; he doesn't have the same amount of time or space to drop his shoulder, take a massive drop-step, and then plow his way into a below the rim finish. And unfortunately, that's not something that happens all that often for even the best bigs in this league.

Disclaimer - I'm okay with being wrong and hope that's the case