CroatianSports.com caught up with Los Angeles Lakers/Croatia center Ivica Zubac this week at Staples Center. Zubac mentioned that Lebron James has already taught him to become more professional in the young season before talking about the World Cup and his time watching the games at St. Anthony’s Croatian Catholic church in Downtown Los Angeles.
What a shocker…. Big man allergic Walton actually plays zubac and he puts up 9 pts, 8 rebounds, 80 percent shooting, +15 in +/- in 20 minutes and the Lakers win
Tyson Chandler to be signed by Lakers. I wonder if they release zubac as a result. Could end up being the best thing for him to get away from walton
Mixed Grill
Šarić is already an 18pt 8 reb 4 assist guy when played at 36 mpg.
He is a great three point shooter (which stretches the floor), and can also start the play as a point forward (and regularly shares these duties with Simmons)… and he also does all the little things that don’t show up on the Stat sheet.
He’s fine as he is. Doesn’t really need to improve much more to be a legit #3 option on a young contending team.
Zubac would’ve been awesome in the 90s.
There are plenty of talented big men in the league today who get limited playing time, simply because the NBA is moving away from the skilled but lumbering giants.
Guys like Nurkić, Zubac, Valanciunas, Favors, etc are all very skilled big men who are efficient and very dominant on the glass. But it’s all about uptempo small ball and being able to guard on the perimeter now. So these guys are used sparingly.
Zubac does need to go to a better team though. The Lakers are a mess.
I like saric too; indeed not athletic but he has a strong center of gravity and great balance. I just don’t know how he will find space for upside with such limited athleticism. Hezonja strikes me as someone who can only be s shooter and if he does not excel at that what is he good for? Zubac has a future somewhere in a world where big men are back in fashion.
Saric has a high bball IQ.
He was going to succeed no matter what.
He has zero athleticism, yet somehow is an elite rebounder.
He also can play okay defense, considering he is slow laterally.
He also had a broken shot coming into the NBA, then became a 40% 3-pt shooter within one year.
He is both a stretch-four and a playmaking-four rolled into one. The perfect compliment to their one-two punch in Simmons and Embiid. The Sixers are not going to ever trade this guy. A trio of Simmons, Embiid and Saric will be excellent in the future.
Dumb players are limited no matter the talent.
Markelle Fultz is a dumb kid, though very talented. He’s looking like a serious bust…that the Sixers traded TWO lottery picks with their main rivals (Celtics) to obtain.
One of those picks turned out to be Jayson Tatum. The other is the upcoming Sacramento Kings pick in the 2019 draft.
What a disaster for the Sixers.
Interesting but I have a different view on kukoc. His movement was slow, and he had no pace. He was also afraid of physical contact. i always thought he was over rated. I thought Radja the better player. In the end Hezonja came too early. He should have stayed in Europe like Saric.
I pray Dalić inserts both Vlašić and Brekalo into action in November.
Should be a packed house in Zagreb.
Let’s get a positive result v Spain and momentum into yet another opportunity to teach England and lesson on their home soil.
Rebić is on FIRE.
@ Maminjo
I have been watching old school footage of Dražen and Kukoč and even Radja.
There skills were so superior to our modern day “NBA” players.
Hezonja simply has inferior skills. Particularly his ball hamdling is weak. He has what we used to call “a little bit of handle.”
Dražen could get any where he needed to on the court and Kukoč was a legit guard at 6’11” !!
Hezonja has a modern day stretch 4 handle in the NBA and he is 6’8” and not even near as good as Šarić.
Not sure why a Hezonja can’t turn up for HKS to actually play on the court to be a bench role player for the BS knicks?
Also why didn’t my he go to an elite NBA training program to fine tune his athletic talent along with ball handling skills.
Jebi ga .. down load a Kylie Irving mix tape or Curry training video.
And get some NBA ready ball skills?
Kukoč was made for this NBA.
He was a ball handling play making 4 before the NBA was ready for this style.
Also does Hezonja watch the shooting form of Bogdanović? He is balanced and set to shoot every time. It seems Hezonja holds the ball slightly off to his left and has to expend too much energy to shoot.
Bogdanović is old school ready and set to shoot with squared up feet and shooting pocket.
Dražen used to always say if you can’t shoot you can’t really play basketball.
Lowe is only paying attention to him because Lowe’s wife is Croatian.
Hezonja will be a career role player, but there’s still hope for him to be better. He has all the tools to be a very good player in the modern NBA. It’s just mental with him. Some guys mature out of it. Some guy’s don’t. We’ll see.
Hezonja is balls!
Him and his future 23 rings. Love guys who talk like they’re Muhammad Ali and have nothing to back it up.
At least espn is still paying attention to him.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25151211/zach-lowe-10-things-like-including-damian-lillard
It helps to wear a watch . This way you can keep track of those minutes. Good tip for our younger players.
Age 16-20.
You have to become a young man on the field.
Always be in a place where you play meaningful minutes.
http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/25140313/nba-draft-scouting-misses-how-avoid-now
Espn with an article talking about the mistakes made in previous drafts. The list of drafted too high is highlighted by hezonja and bender
Interestingly, seemingly the conclusion on both seems that they might’ve come to the league or moved to major teams like Barcelona too early which never gave them the chance to actually play and develop
Can’t help but think this rings true on the soccer side as well where our biggest talents are consistently relegated to benches in big leagues
I remember how you guys used to get excited about moves to Barcelona and England and i always warned you. Now you’ve all come around yet again
Zub seems like a good guy and i continue to think hes talented and can be a legit player in the league. His biggest obstacle is Walton who thinks he’s a small ball mastermind cause he stumbled into coaching the warriors and has had an allergic reaction to big men ever since