At the risk of sounding like a broken record - Collins will never reach his potential unless we either have a coaching change or bring in a vet big to mentor him.
Pretty hard on the kid don't you think. He still better defender then Leonard on his worst days. Yes Leonard shooting the ball better Zach right now but remember it took Leonard 7 years to actually be rotation. Give Zach time he will get there and if was Leonard or Zach I wouldn't take Skals for granted.
Hey, Zach has not played well for a while now, now we have another guy to go with Jake, who has earned his minutes, and Chief and Harkless (less min for him to), Zach loses minutes which for now is how it should be, we'll see if Hood can play well consistently, if he does Zach gets a lot more pine time. As has been said as nauseum he really needs to bulk up and get stronger. I view his season at this time as disappointing, no way is he a bust, he needs more time but we need to tighten up our playoff rotation and the way he is playing he IMO should get much more limited playoff minutes
Just to be clear, the OP position wasn’t to give up on Zack, but maybe observe that he is demoted as just not ready at this time.
It It's really pretty clear and simple to me, he's not playing very well and other guys have stepped up and earned more minutes and now a new guy may as well. Ho hate, not "bust" stuff, just simple Bball
Here's a look at Collins & Leonard's running average minutes played per game. Meyers is simply winning the minutes. More points. More rebounds. More assists. Defense rating slightly below Collins, but Offensive ratings much higher than Collins. At this point of the season, the coach has to focus on playing the players that give the team the best chance to win. Development comes secondary. I must say, I'm a bit surprised. But good for Meyers.
the players playing the best get the minutes. i just have zero idea how Stotts decides who is playing the best. I have zero issue with Collins losing or gaining minutes as long as the movements are earned or lost by merit or lack there of.
Bulls-eye! Even though Leonard is no longer useless, the end result does not justify the time and money invested in him. If Zach and Skal continue to follow the same trajectory the smart thing is to cut our losses and move on. Same for Simon and Trent. Sometimes, a GM just has to be a heartless SOB and put the team ahead of the individual player.
I cant bold a portion on my phone for some reason, but your last sentence sums it up. Let’s not forget he is barely 21? He came out hot because he is an intense, hard working kid. But the game is fast. He needs more time to adjust. Look at Nurk even. He is only now really coming into his own and becoming more consistent, mostly because he has slowed down, because the game has slowed down for him. I still have alot of confidence in collins, if anything, because he seems to have close to Dame-level determination and if he is falling short, i have no doubts he will do everything he can to improve as much as possible every off season. As long as he maintains that killer mindset and holds himself to that high standard, the game will come to him and he will become a solid Contributor at minimum. He is no Swannigan.
As long as I see improvement from him I am find. He need just stay aggressive on defense end even if his offense spotty at times. There a lot players in this league are in it just because they can play defense and anything they do in offense is plus.
Zach had a good start but has fallen off since then. I expect that 'good start' to last further into the season next year. The fouling issue is one that continues to plague him since his one year at Gonzaga. I imagined it would improve but it has actually become just a bit worse. He'll hopefully grow out of some of the 'rookie' calls he continues to get but it's the abject 'dumb' fouls he commits at times that can be frustrating. He's still only 21. I don't expect him to be setting the world on fire yet but would like to see at least some progress. He seems to be regressing instead.