re: 19 games in - what does Zion do better/worse than you expected

Defense, Shooting, and overall conditioning need improvement. Scary to think how could he actually be...he's already fricking outstanding

There isn’t a rookie that comes into this league that doesn’t have D issues. It’s the biggest transition for college players. I think he has the tools to be a very good defender in this league. So, I’m not really surprised at all by his defense. The conditioning concerns imo is completely over exaggerated. He was on the shelf for half the season and we still aren’t 20 games in. His conditioning will get better each passing week. He is an scoring at a very high level and i expect that to only improve with a perimeter game. My main two things i want him to work on? Defense and a mid range jumper. He already can’t be stopped from getting to the basket but if he adds a 15 ft jumper that he can hit consistently he would be completely unstoppable.

The Good

He's not even playing anywhere near his potential and he's almost unstoppable with how limited he is.
His dog mentality. You can tell when he gets pissed, and i love it.

The Bad

his defensive effort looks terrible at times. He's got to get better on that side of the court, and i think he will when he gets fully healthy. He looks slow out there at times. I forgot who it was against, Michigan State or Virginia, when the guard almost broke his ankles and blew by him, but Zion was quick enough to recover and block him with ease. We haven't seen that Zion this year with quick feet.
Free throws at times have been terrible. He's got to get some more arch on them.

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- Ball handling. He needs to be dribbling constantly. Way too many turnovers when he puts it on the floor.

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Do you guys remember him from the preseason? The thing i was impressed with the most was his dribbling and how quick he looked.
At no point this season has he looked anywhere near as quick, explosive and comfortable dribbling the ball as he did in the preseason. Preseason Highlights
And that's not to say he hasn't been explosive this year, b/c he's had his moments, but he hasn't looked like he did in the preseason for the most part. League is fricked next year when he comes back fully healthy and in better shape.

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- His rebounding overall is lower than I thought. He's a beast chasing his own shots but on D, he hasn't gotten that many. I think this is primarily because Al has him leaking out constantly.

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I think it's the latter. They want him leaking out, and it's working b/c teams are conscience of it now and your seeing them have 4-5 guys running back into the paint after shots. I'd love to see what our opponents offensive rebounds have been and our transition baskets have been over the last 10 or so games.


I think the biggest things he is going to need to improve on, which is hard to do outside of games and real practice, is recognizing double teams and what to do with them. When to attack the rim immediately, where to pass it, when to be patient, and the biggest thing we can do for him in this regards is surround him with shooters, and i'm looking at Favors when i say that.

Let’s be fair, Zion has very good basketball instincts and good basketball IQ IMO. He needs to work on being better protecting the ball and better handling the ball but he isn’t terrible at those things. He needs to improve on the defensive side bc it’s is not good enough to just rely on his elite athleticism anymore.

Imo, He really just wasn’t used to other stud level athletes defending him or him defending them. He will definitely improve with exposure and repetition.

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Definitely needs to improve his ball handling. I watched almost every game he played at Duke and I don't remember this being a huge issue. I actually thought he handled the ball very well for his size. I'm a little surprised at all the bobbles and fumbles.

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Y’all don’t think the level of competition has anything to do with this? His handles didn’t get worse. His competition got significantly better.

The majority of the issues I’ve seen with his ball handling are within the lane.

Great post and I think agree with all of it.

Regarding turnovers and ball handling, I believe a lot of that can be improved with better recognition of double teams, when to pass to beat the double, and when to pull up for the short J instead of crashing to the goal. He puts himself in difficult situations in the lane fairly often. He has shown a few pull-ups in the half court and he is wide open because of the threat he poses going to the rim, so this is already happening.

One of the things in the OP was the development of counter-moves so that it's not all just the spin. I'm not saying he has to be Kevin McHale in that regard, but I have no idea how anyone will guard him if upfakes and "up and unders" are added to his repertoire.

I'm surprised at how bad he is on defense, though I think he will get better.


I also thought he would be more of a force on rebounds and I think he would if he weren't so worried about getting out on the break for the lobs, dunks and easy layups

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The majority of the issues I’ve seen with his ball handling are within the lane.

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Again I don't disagree. I honestly think it's just being a little too impatient in the post that leads to sloppy ball handling. And yes, that has a lot to do with the competition he's going up against. But he also seems very hesitant to put it on the floor in the open court. I don't know if that's a gameplan thing or what, but that was never an issue before the injury.