Zach is not a straight 4 in an ideal world, and you're making him that if you re-sign both Nurk and Ed. And I'd argue you only need 3 good bigs, and sometimes 2 depending on the team.
He's actually a 4/5 because he's got neither a long range shot nor even a mid range shot and that's his biggest problem.
See Bones? It's statements like that that just kill me.... You are better than that. This is a guy you are talking about that has 10 years and a ring. He played 72 games at an average of 11 mins a game on a team that won more games than any team EVER! You fall into a BPM stat that doesn't even begin to tell a story of what a player can actually do? We are talking Steve Kerr here as head coach of a team that won 73 games. Speights was a 22-10 per 36 on that team. But "BonesJones" says he shouldn't even be in the league because you don't want to say Swanigan could step in and make it in this league. Now i happen to agree Swanigan is not even close to as athletic as Davis. I also don't like the way people were crowning him the second coming of Zach Randolph before this season even started. Matter of fact i agree with your premise. But why tear down a player that has had a quality career and has actually killed the Blazers on the court at times? I just don't get it? https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/GSW/2016.html
I only saw one person make that comment. Majority are in the too soon to tell category, but giving up on a kid at this stage would be foolish.
Swanigan High School- dominant player and lead his high school to its first ever state championship and was a McDonalds All American and Indiana Mr. Basketball award College- had offers from Kentucky, Duke and Arizona and was named All American and Big 10 player of the year USA National team: named to the u17 National team as well as the u-19 National team G League had a successful season there scoring 14ppg and 9rpg. I don't know but he has been successful at every step of the way so it should be hard to bet against the guy. Nobody has seen enough of Swanigan at this stage, but his resume so far has been one of a lot of success. Let's give him a chance rather than toss him away.
Adam Morrison was All American and NABC co-player of the year too. College, AAU, and high-school ball are not the NBA.
So that means every player will follow in that same situation? Morrison also had a severe knee injury his second year that cost him his second season and is a diabetic making it difficult to live the NBA lifestyle. Right now he is on a very low cost contract and the Blazers have time to evaluate. I don;t know how many times I have to say this but we don't have enough information of Swanigan at this time but he is worth trying to develop rather than making blanket statements that he will never make it. For everyone of your Adam Morrison examples I could show a success story. The kid works hard and has been successful at every level so far.
I saw Swanigan in game action this year and he doesn't look like a player to me. Big deal, most late first-round draft picks wash out, there's nothing controversial about saying that.
When Swanigan was on the court, playing the game of basketball (or at least trying to) he was slow-footed and ground-bound. Maybe he can radically transform his body, but I don't think that's going to significantly alter his (lack of) quick-twitch muscle fibers Odds are he's never going to be able to defend at this level, and that makes it very hard to justify giving him meaningful minutes.
I understand everyone’s emotional tie to Ed because of his heart and hustle... but is it really that hilarious to think Swanigan could put up close to 5.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game if he were given the same 20 minutes Ed played??
It's his G league play that stands out...it's sort of what the G league is designed for...Swanigan is a hustle guy...for his age, I think he'll be a quick study and I think he's going to play here a couple more years at least.