Ante Zizic 1st game: 17 pts and 7 rebs for KK Cibona

rambone,

As they say, you can't teach big.

Looks like he's filled out a little.  Any idea if he's heavier than the 250 they had him at around draft time?  If he's gotten bigger, and can still move some, it sure couldn't hurt his odds in the NBA.

Regards

This guy may be an interesting guy to check out next summer. His 250 pounds appears to be quite solid especially for a teenager. Hope he has a good year.

17 points 8 rebounds 2 blocks in 38 minutes.8-6 in field goals.The game was vs a Bosnian team of the Adriatic League.

I can do without the rim pull ups every time he dunks the ball, but at least he knows how to dunk. Zeller needs to take notes.

gyso

He looks clearly heavier/stronger than draft time/last season. Just look at the thumbnail pic of the video above, where he's hanging on the rim. That photo was from last season, and in the video itself he looks much stockier/stronger.

I'm guessing he now weighs in the 258-260 ball park, but he still moves decently well. Celtics need one bruiser on the roster, including this year. In my opinion not having a Zizic type off the bench (instead of Mickey, etc) is our biggest weakness, not 3 point shooting.

arambone,

It would be nice to have a bruiser, but I have to disagree with your thinking that  bruiser off the bench is more important than much improved three point shooting.

The Cs were third worst in the league last year in three point shooting.  They may have won 6 or 7 more games if they had just been able to shoot the 3 in the middle of the NBA pack.  The missing bruiser would not have been able to win anywhere near 6 or 7 additional games.

Jungle Jim Luscutoff was probably our best known "bruiser" and he never won us more than a game a year as a safe guess.

Just watched the highlights.   Yeah, he definitely needs to lose the chin ups.

My observations,  based upon a highlight film (which, of course, only shows the good stuff):

1.  He likes it inside.  That's good.
2. The defense, if that's what you want to call it, on him was excrement.   It wouldn't be anywhere near that easy in the NBA. Zero, absolute zero, PnR defense on him.
3.  I like his stroke.  Solid, repeatable, efficient mechanics.
4. He moves his feet on defense.  He single-handedly pinned his man on the baseline and forced a travel.  He also picked up a guard on a drive. His baseline man-to-man impressed me more than the block. He didn't allow himself to get faked or bullied.

I don't know the Adriatic league or the opponent,  International is the board's guru on that stuff, but not bad for a first game.  As far as his weight is concerned I would have to know the dimensions of the players he is standing next to.  I'd look like a mastodon compared to Herve Villachaise if I stood next to him.


bob


.

I liked the big who passed off behind his back to Zizic. I also like the fact Zizic is getting to play the short Euro schedule which will allow his bones to fully form and prevent serious problems that affect many big men who enter the NBA and play a full 82 game season as 19 year olds. He's going to pan out for us in time. Cunt on it.

Bob, thanks for a little humor. You're always good for a laugh and for great basketball insights. Arambone, when are the Celts going to hire you as a scout?

"Arambone, when are the Celts going to hire you as a scout?"

I'm too crazy and undomesticated to be a good fit for an NBA team at this time. And tomorrow's not looking good either.

I'm trying to be a youtube scout, but the money isn't too good so far. At least I'm trying, and I'm not out there staying in Motel 6 and eating fast food on the regular.

But there's some new Scouting convention thing they do in Vegas every summer, and it's just a matter of time before one of their featured speakers is Youtube Scout. It just won't be me up there.

I spent a lot of time watching Adriatic League ball about 3 years ago. Tons of talented bigs in that league.

I was scouting Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic (3rd place rookie of the year last year, beating even Okafor in votes), Dario Saric, and future Sac King Bogdan Bogdanovic.

That league produces big strong guys with all the fundamentals, and great work ethics.

I don't know if 3 years ago was just a brief Golden Era of ABA hoops, but at this point I'd almost bet blindly on any drafted big man from the ABA making it in the NBA.

Celtics passed on this guy this year, about 5 times. The Lakers grabbed him and he looks like their center of the future:

Ivica Zubac

Jay King
Jay King
@ByJayKing about 4 hours ago
Stevens said he'll "pay a lot of attention" to Yabusele and Zizic this season even though they're not in Boston.

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bob


.

Both of these guys may end up helping in some way in the years to come, but with the team improving every year roster spots are going to be tougher and tougher to come by.  Either guy's future will depend upon the Cs needs next year as well as each player's development.

The two Nets picks coming up in the next two drafts should likely get roster spaces if they turn out to be as high as expected.  And, if one or either is traded the player traded for will get a roster space.  The Cs still have a bunch of other draft picks that could produce a roster spot guy as well.

Smart, Rozier, Crowder, Horford and Brown have roster spots for the next several years.  Thomas, Olynyk, Bradley, Zerebko and Johnson  will form a pool of guys who may or may not be resigned.

Green will likely be a one year player in Boston while guys like Young, Hunter and some of the other young guys who have yet to prove themselves may either improve to take a roster space down the road or may not even make this year's team.

Here's some more complete highlights from the same game.

He just played another game today and scored 19 points, I'll post highlights when I find them

wideclyde wrote:arambone,

It would be nice to have a bruiser, but I have to disagree with your thinking that  bruiser off the bench is more important than much improved three point shooting.

The Cs were third worst in the league last year in three point shooting.  They may have won 6 or 7 more games if they had just been able to shoot the 3 in the middle of the NBA pack.  The missing bruiser would not have been able to win anywhere near 6 or 7 additional games.

Jungle Jim Luscutoff was probably our best known "bruiser" and he never won us more than a game a year as a safe guess.

Agreed. If the C's had a rotational guy between Green, Brown, Smart and Rozier who would hit 40% from 3 that would be WAY more valuable than the upgrade from Mickey or a smart veteran like Zeller to a 19 yr old Zizic right now.