thedoper wrote:He is up to his old tricks. The Bulls have been 4-9 since his return, and he's shooting 40% and -.6.8 net rtg. Max him!! He beat the Wolves and Orlando.
...yet he's still a more efficient scorer than Wiggins because he has a 3-point shot and makes his free throws. Defensively is where Wig has the advantage but not even that is a real strength - it's just better comparatively (plus good health of course).
Zach should eventually get back to the super talented shooter/scorer that started to emerge last season, but I think it will take him a while to shake all the rust off. Whether he ever "gets it" on defense is TBD....
I think Zach will always have good numbers on offense, even this year he will pull it around. And people will see this and his athleticism and believe he's a valuable player. I just have never seen a situation where I felt he was making his team better on either side of the ball. When Zachs on fire it goes well, otherwise tough to watch. Reminds me of Crawford in a lot of ways now that I've seen and aged version of him for some time now.
That's a pretty good comparison. But Zach's a better 3-point shooter faster with the ball than Crawford. Zach also appears to be a better rebounder and he's clearly a more explosive athlete. They they're are both fearless shooters and pure scorers. How good can Zach become defensively is a big question. Flip thought Zach would become a great defender. Time will tell. But what's great about Zach is that his floor is a more athletic and better 3-point shooting Jamaal Crawford. His ceiling is perennial allstar. We'll know in a couple years.
Zach absolutely has the edge in all those areas. But Jamal is far superior in team offensive concepts, sharing the ball, running an offense when needed. And Jamal is bad at these skills. If Zach is ever going to be a perennial all star with how much he likes to handle the rock, he needs better court awareness. This is why Flip and every coach wanted to force him into point with no success. Zach has been a disaster so far in his career in distributing as the primary ball handler. If this skill never improves he's a perennial 6th man.
I wouldn't say that Jamaal is "far" superior to Zach on offensive concepts and ball sharing. He's better that Zach in that area but only marginally and that's inspite of having enormously more experience that Zach. To date Zach has averaged as many assists per game as Jamaal, which provides some indication of how he compares to Jamaal in the ball-sharing department. And again, Zach is much younger with far less experience that Jamaal. Yet Zach is truly a much better 3-point shooter and a far better athlete than Jamaal. At the end of the day Zach is a scorer. So he's already a terrific 6th man as a scorer off the bench. He has the competitive drive that suggests he'll develop in other areas, but hard to know. At least he has the basic tools -- perimeter shooting and ballhandling -- to become a very good NBA wing.
thedoper wrote:He is up to his old tricks. The Bulls have been 4-9 since his return, and he's shooting 40% and -.6.8 net rtg. Max him!! He beat the Wolves and Orlando.
...yet he's still a more efficient scorer than Wiggins because he has a 3-point shot and makes his free throws. Defensively is where Wig has the advantage but not even that is a real strength - it's just better comparatively (plus good health of course).
Zach should eventually get back to the super talented shooter/scorer that started to emerge last season, but I think it will take him a while to shake all the rust off. Whether he ever "gets it" on defense is TBD....
I think Zach will always have good numbers on offense, even this year he will pull it around. And people will see this and his athleticism and believe he's a valuable player. I just have never seen a situation where I felt he was making his team better on either side of the ball. When Zachs on fire it goes well, otherwise tough to watch. Reminds me of Crawford in a lot of ways now that I've seen and aged version of him for some time now.
That's a pretty good comparison. But Zach's a better 3-point shooter faster with the ball than Crawford. Zach also appears to be a better rebounder and he's clearly a more explosive athlete. They they're are both fearless shooters and pure scorers. How good can Zach become defensively is a big question. Flip thought Zach would become a great defender. Time will tell. But what's great about Zach is that his floor is a more athletic and better 3-point shooting Jamaal Crawford. His ceiling is perennial allstar. We'll know in a couple years.
Zach absolutely has the edge in all those areas. But Jamal is far superior in team offensive concepts, sharing the ball, running an offense when needed. And Jamal is bad at these skills. If Zach is ever going to be a perennial all star with how much he likes to handle the rock, he needs better court awareness. This is why Flip and every coach wanted to force him into point with no success. Zach has been a disaster so far in his career in distributing as the primary ball handler. If this skill never improves he's a perennial 6th man.
I wouldn't say that Jamaal is "far" superior to Zach on offensive concepts and ball sharing. He's better that Zach in that area but only marginally and that's inspite of having enormously more experience that Zach. To date Zach has averaged as many assists per game as Jamaal, which provides some indication of how he compares to Jamaal in the ball-sharing department. And again, Zach is much younger with far less experience that Jamaal. Yet Zach is truly a much better 3-point shooter and a far better athlete than Jamaal. At the end of the day Zach is a scorer. So he's already a terrific 6th man as a scorer off the bench. He has the competitive drive that suggests he'll develop in other areas, but hard to know. At least he has the basic tools -- perimeter shooting and ballhandling -- to become a very good NBA wing.
Crawford's ball handling...he might be one of the best in the entire league no joke. Lavine isn't in the same league there but that's not a fair bar. He is pretty good it's a relative strength. Lavine is likely going to be a better shooter (probably already is) and also be able to hit dagger shots from anywhere any time and probably at a more efficient level in addition to being a really good shooter in general. To me Lavine is a guy that can easily be Brad Beal and could actually be better than that. That's a pretty good player.
