Zeller delivering big for Celtics

Zeller delivering big for Celtics




Boston Celtics center Tyler Zeller (44) celebrates with teammates Luigi Datome, left, and Isaiah Thomas, right, after he hit the game-winning shot to defeat the Utah Jazz in a game last March.  ELISE AMENDOLA/ASSOCIATED PRESS


By Scott Souza
@scott_souza

Posted Oct. 12, 2015 at 8:48 PM

WALTHAM – Tyler Zeller is the type of player who is seldom noticed even though he is almost always exactly right where he is supposed to be and doing exactly what he is supposed to do on the court.

Consistency has been the key to the 7-footer’s game since the Celtics acquired him from the Cleveland Cavaliers entering his third NBA season a year ago. His statistics don’t jump off the page, but his presence has been a constant in the Boston starting lineup since early last season. That steadiness appears to have him ticketed to be back there alongside newly acquired David Lee for the Oct. 28 season opener after he got the nod in the first two preseason games in Europe.

“He was very good the first week of practice,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “He scored at really a high, high rate. He’s a guy who can add a good roller (to the basket), and is also a capable 16- to 17-foot shooter on offense, and a guy who is capable defensively.”

On a crowded roster of big men who flash 3-point range, huge rebounding potential or large personalities, the Indiana native is more often found behind a stone-faced expression on the court, a soft-spoken demeanor straight out of America’s heartland in the locker room, and a game that stresses reliability over fantasy league fodder.

Only that wasn’t always the case. The same player who let out a lonely single fist pump upon hitting the dramatic, buzzer-beating game-winner against the Utah Jazz at TD Garden late last season said prior to Monday’s practice that the emotions buried deep within him most nights used to tear apart his play.

“When I was a little kid I was all over the place,” he said. “It was something I needed to work on. It was something I try to take pride in now that when coach puts me in he knows what he’s going to get.

“Obviously, you will have some nights that are better than others. But I try to put my best foot forward. That’s helped me in my career.”
Zeller said it was his father, Steve, who pulled him aside one day when he was in high school and warned him he had to do a better job of keeping it together on the court.

“My dad told me: ‘You can’t wear your emotions on your sleeve so much,’” he said. “I was like, ‘Alright,’ so I just started working on it a little bit.
“I would get really flustered. I would just get very upset. My whole game would fall apart. I would be terrible. The coach would have to take me out because I wasn’t doing anything right.”

These days it’s usually the exact opposite with the 25-year-old. On the game-winner against the Jazz, Zeller had the calmness to catch a long inbounds pass from Marcus Smart over the outstretched arms of Utah leaper Rudy Gobert with 1.7 seconds on the clock, spin in the lane, and put in a reverse layup for a pivotal victory in Boston’s surprise playoff surge.

Zeller went on to start 59 of 82 games in the regular season after starting only nine for the lowly Cavaliers in his second season. He averaged career highs of 10.2 points and 5.7 rebounds a game, while shooting 54.9 percent, in 21.2 minutes a night.

The competition for minutes in Boston will increase considerably this year with the additions of Lee and free-agent signee Amir Johnson. But Zeller, who added he is still “hopeful” for a contract extension in Boston before the Oct. 31 deadline that would otherwise have him facing restricted free agency at season’s end, said he spent the summer adding some more muscle and building off his familiarity with the Stevens system.

“It’s kind of my first year back (with a team in my career) where I’ve known the defensive schemes, the offense, had a feel for everything,” he said

“I was able to work on that, gain a few more pounds, do a lot of things in the offseason.

“I was able to hold my own (early in camp). But I can’t have a drop off right now.”


bob
MY NOTE:  Must be Tyler Zeller day, there's a lot of press about him today.  I didn't realize this was his first year in his career where he knew the entire playbook.  If that's so, then we might see a whole new Tyler Zeller this year.  He'll know where to be on offense and defense and not just playing off of instinct. He's still not a rim protector, unless he learned how this summer, but a good, dependable position defender backed up by an athletic and active rest of the defense might be good enough. Not perfect, not my idea of ideal, but good enough.


.

What I like most about Zeller is that he seldom tries to do anything beyond his capabilities.

If Zeller improves again this year (a great part of Stevens and his staff's coaching emphasis) like he did last year after joining the Cs, he will be more than just a 'capable' NBA center.

He may never end up being a true NBA 'star', but he is a good player who is going to keep getting better for at least a few more years. Once he finally levels off he is then going to be a more than excellent NBA back up center.

Not sure what he will be worth next summer, but signing him now is certainly not a bad idea.