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MJST Retired Number
Joined: 06 Jul 2014 Posts: 26309
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:45 pm Post subject: |
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venturalakersfan wrote: | Dr. Funkbot wrote: | venturalakersfan wrote: | Zu will always suffer from a lack of athleticism. On the play where CP embarrassed him, it was 100% effort and 50% athleticism. I disagree with those who say he has no place in the league, I think he can be a solid backup. |
That play was a team defense problem not a Zu problem. A 7 footer should not be left on an island, as Stu would say, trying to stay in front of CP3. |
And the reason is because he lacks the lateral quickness to guard on the perimeter. |
I was more worried about Tarik Black crossing up Thomas Bryant from the top of the key than I was watching CP3 cross up Zubac. _________________ How NBA 2K18 failed the All-Time Lakers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMBYm3wwxk |
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MickMgl Star Player
Joined: 07 Jan 2013 Posts: 1987
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 2:01 pm Post subject: |
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PICKnPOP wrote: | splashmtn wrote: | AllorNothing wrote: | Seems like he is even slower than last year. He supposedly lost a lot of weight but it appears that he lost a lot of muscle to go with the baby fat loss. | not sure what you've been watching. but I have to say I completely disagree with this statement. one thing Zu has done after working on his body all summer long is gotten faster/quicker. he's faster than he use to be/quicker off the floor.
Now with that said. he's still not as fast/quick as a lot of other nba bigs. but he never was and he never will be. with that said, its still a noticeable upgrade in speed/quicks from last year. |
I feel like the weight loss hurt his post game somehow. I used to feel like he was automatic in the post last year...now he’s trash. |
Offensively, they really don't feature him. He's mostly just used for picks. The rare occasions he gets the ball in the post, the spacing is poor and he has little room to really do anything. I'm not saying they should be doing anything different. Too many fans want the team to shift everything around to feature their favorite player.
But I do think he still has the soft touch around the basket. Still rebounds very well. Blocks shots, even if not quite at the rate of a year ago. But offensively, he has a very limited role, and it's probably hard to work all your skills into those limited opportunities. Contrast with his time with the South Bay Lakers, where he has dominated. Sure, weaker competition, but also it's just that he has a larger role, and you get to see more of the skills that caught people's attention last year with the Lakers... and pop up every ten games or so off the bench. |
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venturalakersfan Retired Number
Joined: 14 Apr 2001 Posts: 144461 Location: The Gold Coast
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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MJST wrote: | venturalakersfan wrote: | Dr. Funkbot wrote: | venturalakersfan wrote: | Zu will always suffer from a lack of athleticism. On the play where CP embarrassed him, it was 100% effort and 50% athleticism. I disagree with those who say he has no place in the league, I think he can be a solid backup. |
That play was a team defense problem not a Zu problem. A 7 footer should not be left on an island, as Stu would say, trying to stay in front of CP3. |
And the reason is because he lacks the lateral quickness to guard on the perimeter. |
I was more worried about Tarik Black crossing up Thomas Bryant from the top of the key than I was watching CP3 cross up Zubac. |
I think that Bryant is quicker than Zu but he is hardly fleet of foot. _________________ RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023. |
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MickMgl Star Player
Joined: 07 Jan 2013 Posts: 1987
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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HOF Rookie wrote: |
He had a few nice games with IT and made some layups but that’s not something that gives me hope for the long term. |
People underestimate the difficulty, even for many big men, of catching a pass in traffic and converting it into a basket.
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What has he improved upon from last year? Legitimate question because he looks awful out there to me. It looks like the game is moving too fast for him. |
He runs the floor much better than last year. Passes more than last year. Shoots free throws better than last year. Rebounds better than last year (when he was already very good).
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He will probably grow into his body a bit more but to this day, he’s given us little hope. |
His performance in the G-League alone should be enough for hope. |
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oldlakerfan Star Player
Joined: 15 May 2001 Posts: 2146 Location: Tega Cay, South Carolina
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:15 am Post subject: |
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Zu
Way to finish the season strong. I liked the defense and rebounding you showed in the last 10 games.
Call JR and get the number for his trainer. Work on becoming more explosive and quicker as you improve your total body strength.
I think you know this off season how hard you need to work but I also think you learned a heck of a lot.
You can be the man but you gotta become a man which starts this off season.
This is the year for you Zu. Work on strength, speed, quickness and explosion. Keep working on your low post moves and outside shooting. You have what it takes to be great but there will be a great price to pay if you are to join the list of great Laker Centers. |
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HOF Rookie Star Player
Joined: 09 Jun 2015 Posts: 1717
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:29 am Post subject: |
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MickMgl wrote: | HOF Rookie wrote: |
He had a few nice games with IT and made some layups but that’s not something that gives me hope for the long term. |
People underestimate the difficulty, even for many big men, of catching a pass in traffic and converting it into a basket.
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What has he improved upon from last year? Legitimate question because he looks awful out there to me. It looks like the game is moving too fast for him. |
He runs the floor much better than last year. Passes more than last year. Shoots free throws better than last year. Rebounds better than last year (when he was already very good).
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He will probably grow into his body a bit more but to this day, he’s given us little hope. |
His performance in the G-League alone should be enough for hope. |
Bryant runs the floor so much better, so much quicker so much more fluid.
What does ‘passes more than last year’ mean? Are his assists up? I don’t see his passing as something that leads to opportunities or a hockey assist.
He also showed the same amount of finishing at the basket acumen as last year, I didn’t see any real improvement there. |
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LaxT Star Player
Joined: 23 Sep 2002 Posts: 2536
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:36 am Post subject: |
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Both Zu and Bryant have non-guaranteed contract for next season. I wonder when it would become guaranteed. |
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LakerSanity Moderator
Joined: 30 Nov 2006 Posts: 33474 Location: Long Beach, California
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 9:46 am Post subject: |
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Zu needs to get stronger, become more explosive at the rim and continue to work on his conditioning. Most of his improvement is going to be done in the gym and not the court. After that, he needs to work on counters and get his confidence back in his touch. As it is for most young players, next year - his third - will likely dictate his place in the league, and whether he has a place at all. He may not even be on this team next year honestly. _________________ LakersGround's Terms of Service
Twitter: @DeleteThisPost |
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MickMgl Star Player
Joined: 07 Jan 2013 Posts: 1987
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:53 am Post subject: |
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HOF Rookie wrote: |
Bryant runs the floor so much better, so much quicker so much more fluid. |
A footrace and 3-point shooting are the only things Bryant probably does better than Zubac. In everything else you would want a big man to do, it's Zubac.
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What does ‘passes more than last year’ mean? Are his assists up? |
Yes. |
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€H£M£$TR¥ Star Player
Joined: 03 Apr 2017 Posts: 3782
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:01 pm Post subject: |
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Zu is perfect as is. He fits great with us, and he does everything he needs to do well. It’s the confidence in his skill set that he needs to develop. Just go out there and dominate. Someone hook him up with a proper nutritionist to sustain energy level, and he should be good to go this summer. _________________ DEAR BASKETBALL |
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MickMgl Star Player
Joined: 07 Jan 2013 Posts: 1987
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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€H£M£$TR¥ wrote: | Zu is perfect as is. He fits great with us, and he does everything he needs to do well. It’s the confidence in his skill set that he needs to develop. Just go out there and dominate. Someone hook him up with a proper nutritionist to sustain energy level, and he should be good to go this summer. |
The exit interview will be crucial for Zubac. They need to tell him what his role is, and what they want him to work on. He improved his FT shooting to where he's actually very good. His rebounding improved, from good to very good.
He's not used the same way on the Lakers as he is in South Bay where he dominated. While it's unreasonable to expect the Lakers to carve out a major role for him, some effort should be made to at least narrow whatever disparity there is in those roles. Half as many shots, nearly 10% difference in usage rate. If they want some offense from him, they should let him know where he should find it. If they just want him to work on conditioning, or defense, then expectations can be focused on that.
And some of the challenge in incorporating him offensively was also seen in the growing pains of Randle, who didn't stretch the floor the way some people would like. I maintain that after the Warriors' dominance ends, there will be a return in value for players who can excel in the paint. That's when everybody will be trying to match up with Embiid, Davis, Towns, et al. And Randle. |
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tofulakers Sixth Man
Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 69
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:14 am Post subject: |
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Zu needs to have a "bigger summer of his life" than Zo. And if he doesn't show improvement by December, ship his butt out! Salary dump come Feb. 2019. |
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MJST Retired Number
Joined: 06 Jul 2014 Posts: 26309
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LaxT Star Player
Joined: 23 Sep 2002 Posts: 2536
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 4:18 am Post subject: |
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Zu sounds/looks very depressed. I wonder what the FO told him.
On the contrary, Thomas Bryant, who also has a non-guaranteed contract, sounds much more confident. |
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LakerSD Franchise Player
Joined: 10 Nov 2016 Posts: 23778
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 9:36 am Post subject: |
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I feel bad for Zu and he is still young, but you can never relax and assuming he was fine last offseason is a lesson learned...hopefully he can climb back up NBA mountain. |
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Scoffs Starting Rotation
Joined: 12 Aug 2001 Posts: 874
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:42 pm Post subject: |
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He's a bad fit for this team, but it's not his fault. Luke's offense is not center oriented; it's guard oriented. Zu's biggest strength is his post game and he's not getting many touches because Luke doesn't run plays for him.
I think it would be a mistake for Zu to concentrate on shooting 3s this offseason; he should instead focus on getting stronger and working on his hook shot. |
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MJST Retired Number
Joined: 06 Jul 2014 Posts: 26309
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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Scoffs wrote: | He's a bad fit for this team, but it's not his fault. Luke's offense is not center oriented; it's guard oriented. Zu's biggest strength is his post game and he's not getting many |
Stop.
Zu has been extremely effective in the pick and roll and has since his rookie year, and whenever the Lakers ran pick and roll with him he was effective within it, you could argue he was more effective in the pick and roll than the post.
People going "Zu just has a post game.." is pretty much just going by their perception of him rather than what he's actually shown to be effective at.
He's effective in the pick and roll, he isn't "lost" if he isn't posting up and he has shown the ability to know where to be on the court which helped a lot on cuts and in the pick and roll as well as off ball movement.
This is an aspect of Zubac's game that gets always and blatantly ignored by people who want to judge him by the perception that he's a 'big stiff euro player' and they out and out ignore how effective he was in the pick and roll last season AND this season, especially when the Lakers ran it for him. _________________ How NBA 2K18 failed the All-Time Lakers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMBYm3wwxk |
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Scoffs Starting Rotation
Joined: 12 Aug 2001 Posts: 874
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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MJST wrote: | Scoffs wrote: | He's a bad fit for this team, but it's not his fault. Luke's offense is not center oriented; it's guard oriented. Zu's biggest strength is his post game and he's not getting many |
Stop.
Zu has been extremely effective in the pick and roll and has since his rookie year, and whenever the Lakers ran pick and roll with him he was effective within it, you could argue he was more effective in the pick and roll than the post. |
But that's just it. Until IT got there, Zu wasn't involved in many pick and rolls and once IT got injured, Zu's production also went way down. |
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MJST Retired Number
Joined: 06 Jul 2014 Posts: 26309
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 9:22 pm Post subject: |
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Scoffs wrote: | MJST wrote: | Scoffs wrote: | He's a bad fit for this team, but it's not his fault. Luke's offense is not center oriented; it's guard oriented. Zu's biggest strength is his post game and he's not getting many |
Stop.
Zu has been extremely effective in the pick and roll and has since his rookie year, and whenever the Lakers ran pick and roll with him he was effective within it, you could argue he was more effective in the pick and roll than the post. |
But that's just it. Until IT got there, Zu wasn't involved in many pick and rolls and once IT got injured, Zu's production also went way down. |
It wasn't till IT got there, he was effective in the pick and roll his rookie year too. It's not his fault the team/coaching staff didn't decide to utilize it till IT got there. that's a flaw of the coaching staff themselves for not playing Zubac to his strengths or really at all.
Also after IT left and they actually ran pick and roll with Zubac with Caruso Zubac did well again, not surprising. They just never were consistent with utilizing it. _________________ How NBA 2K18 failed the All-Time Lakers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxMBYm3wwxk |
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AllorNothing Franchise Player
Joined: 08 Oct 2001 Posts: 18448
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:36 pm Post subject: |
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MJST wrote: | Scoffs wrote: | MJST wrote: | Scoffs wrote: | He's a bad fit for this team, but it's not his fault. Luke's offense is not center oriented; it's guard oriented. Zu's biggest strength is his post game and he's not getting many |
Stop.
Zu has been extremely effective in the pick and roll and has since his rookie year, and whenever the Lakers ran pick and roll with him he was effective within it, you could argue he was more effective in the pick and roll than the post. |
But that's just it. Until IT got there, Zu wasn't involved in many pick and rolls and once IT got injured, Zu's production also went way down. |
It wasn't till IT got there, he was effective in the pick and roll his rookie year too. It's not his fault the team/coaching staff didn't decide to utilize it till IT got there. that's a flaw of the coaching staff themselves for not playing Zubac to his strengths or really at all.
Also after IT left and they actually ran pick and roll with Zubac with Caruso Zubac did well again, not surprising. They just never were consistent with utilizing it. |
I don't think Zubac and Lonzo would work in the pick and roll considering Lonzo can't finish. |
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MickMgl Star Player
Joined: 07 Jan 2013 Posts: 1987
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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Scoffs wrote: | He's a bad fit for this team, but it's not his fault. Luke's offense is not center oriented; it's guard oriented. Zu's biggest strength is his post game and he's not getting many touches because Luke doesn't run plays for him.
I think it would be a mistake for Zu to concentrate on shooting 3s this offseason; he should instead focus on getting stronger and working on his hook shot. |
Enough spacing can be accomplished by having him go back to taking his open 15-footers that he made pretty consistently last year on the Lakers, and this year in South Bay. |
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Fortysixn2 Star Player
Joined: 22 Jun 2016 Posts: 2849
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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I was pretty disappointed in Zu this season. Last season he looked like a young guy with good offensive attributes who needed to work on his body and his aggressiveness. He came into camp weak for some reason, although he had lost weight the just looked out of sorts and had very little energy. He looked better towards the end of the season, but I don’t think made any progress this season. Statistically he was basically the same player, his 2pt shooting was down, hit FT shooting up...otherwise just about the same down the line.
I would not be Surprised if we declined his option and focused our attention on getting a young C with Cleveland’s pick, I like Jontay Porter a lot. Maybe see if there is a different project that we can work on that has more of a nose for defense and is more athletic. |
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HOF Rookie Star Player
Joined: 09 Jun 2015 Posts: 1717
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:47 am Post subject: |
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I think we keep Zu, mainly because he is cheap and has zero trade value at this time.
He plays too straight up and down. When he has the ball in his hands, he doesn’t create any space, defenders crowd him and he isn’t able to make a move.
He has to have a Julius type of offseason where he has a total transformation of his body. He said himself he didn’t work as hard as he should have, and it showed.
Other than his ability to roll to the basket, he doesn’t provide much of anything else.
Gotta show us something Zu, or else you’re gonna be a journeyman for the next 5 years before heading back to Europe. |
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epak Retired Number
Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 34147
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Baron Von Humongous Retired Number
Joined: 02 Jul 2015 Posts: 32979
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 8:57 am Post subject: |
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epak wrote: | https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1002227394281787392
Does he look more lean? |
Yes. Definitely better definition in his arms. _________________ Under New Management |
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