Lol this awkward (about Pekovic). And I also forgot about James Young.
Again not counting Brown & Smart - IMO:
Rozier
Yabusele
Young
Zizic
Mickey
Nader
Jackson
The fact that Zizic plays in the Euroleague and had a large transfer fee really doesnt mean much to me. I think Zizic's production is a function of his motor and athletic ability not really offense/defense skillset. I also dont really feel like he has any upside as theres nothing hes truly GREAT at.
It's one thing to have Yabusele above Zizic, but putting Young (who's 2018-19 option we declined because he's awful) above him tells me that you either don't know anything about him or actively don't like him. There's a reason that Zizic is likely to be on the team next year while Young will probably be allowed to walk
LOL you know nothing about Zizic, dont act like you watch him & your gassing him up because he puts up a couple 15 and ten performances in the Euroleague. Key word EUROLEAGUE. Last game his "significant role" consisted of 10 minutes of play. In his last 6 games he came off the bench for 5 of them. Your argument consisted of the Euroleague and money. Zizic has virtually no skillset and his highlights consist of him running the floor and hitting open layups. Please tell me more from your pool of Zizic knowledge that allows you to talk down to me. Also please let me know where I can watch the Euroleague & Chinese league games that your watching, because how else would you know about Yabuseles lack of progress.
Sorry if you interpreted my comments as talking down to you, I certainly didn't mean for them to come across that way. I honestly don't see how anyone could put Young ahead of Zizic without either 1. knowing nothing about Zizic 2. underrating him heavily because they don't like him or 3. thinking Young has a legitimate future in this league as a starting caliber (or better) player. Please let me know how you reached that decision (sidenote, if you're actually curious about watching Euroleague, you can get their league pass
here, or watch games through other... less legal means)
I never said I watch all of Zizic's games (or Yabusele's), but from looking at his stats (compared to other euroleague players) and clips of his games, you can get a good idea of the player he will be: a strong rebounder (which is a skill that transfers well to the NBA) that uses his size and (to a lesser degree) strength to score inside/as a roll man (this should transfer over, although he may need to add more weight/strength). He's not a post-up threat or shooter, but he should be a better version of Zeller minus the midrange shooting when he comes over (he could develop into more than that, but I wouldn't expect anything more than a decent starter as his career peak)
I've also been following Yabusele's stats and clips when possible (although it's a lot harder, and the stats are useless when the competition is so poor). Yabusele still has the potential he showed last year, but you can't really tell anything from his play in the CBA because the competition is awful. From clips I've seen, though, his defense hasn't looked very good, which he'll need to improve on to carve out a niche hear. His offense is about where you'd expect it to be, good shooting and using his strength against much weaker competition. He hasn't been discouraging (and I never said he was - "he hasn't shown much more than when he was drafted" is the closest I said to that, but that's just the case: he's looked like what I expected, his stats are better than I was expecting but in a league where Jimmer Freddette is averaging almost 40ppg, I take that with a handful of salt)
My argument wasn't "euroleague and money", it's that a team in the top non-NBA basketball league thought highly enough of him to pay a huge sum to get him for half a season. That's something they could have done over the summer and had him for the whole year, but he wasn't worth it then. He had a very good showing in the Adriatic League (weaker than the euroleague, but still better the the DLeague) which improved their perception of him enough to pay a lot of money for him. The fact that they clearly like him a lot coupled with my own eye test tells me that his value has increased significantly since the summer. That should put him above Yabusele (although the argument can be made that he doesn't go above him), and it definitely puts him above Young
I don't know why you think playing 10 minutes in a game somehow means he's not playing a big role. Heck, he started and played 33 minutes in their game today. He's averaged 21 mpg on a team in one of the top leagues in the world despite turning 20 this month. You seem to be emphasizing that it's euroleague like it's a weak league, but it's the best outside of the NBA. Obviously it's not the NBA but it's stronger competition that you'll find in the NCAA, or DLeague, or CBA. If you don't see how that puts him ahead of James "Didn't get his option picked up" Young, I don't even know what to say.