Exclusive Welcome Zach Collins!

He seems like a better prospect than the Finnish fella at least.

 

My point....he better be really good.

 

Listen, say what you will about Olshey, but the one thing I trust from him is his talent evaluation. He has had way more hits than misses and when it comes to the crapshoot that is the draft, that's pretty good.

He seems incredibly confident that Collins was the guy. The last two players I heard this level of certainty from him was Dame and CJ.

 

My point - there's a very significant different gap between "really good" and "the next Larry Bird". It's quite possible to be the former without be remotely close to being the latter.

BNM

 

General rule of thumb: When dealing with the Kings, chances are you got the better end of the deal.

 

Luckily most of his weaknesses can be coached up or fixed via weight room. I still don't like his jumper... it's not Meyers slow but it's not exactly smooth.

 

The more I learn about Zach, the better I feel about the pick. He appears to be the perfect blend of skills that will fit nicely with this roster. Plus his attitude matches the team culture Dame has worked so hard to develop. He is going to do a lot of the dirty work the team needs done, and be happy doing it. Especially on D.

 

I forgot to mention it in the draft thread, but if Collins stayed in another year, there's a good chance he plays his way to the top pick. You have to figure his minutes would have gone up dramatically as the star of the team, and his per-minute production was already off the charts.

I consider us extremely lucky to nab such an under-used, under-valued player. Even if he never develops into a heavy minutes player and is only a 15-20 min/game guy for us, that could be very valuable in a combo 4/5 off the bench. Energy and efficiency in short bursts can do wonders for covering for the starters.

 

Very disappointing with this pick. The guy reminds me of a poor man's Cody Zeller. Trading a 15 and 20 for that is not that exciting. I am however excited for Caleb Swanigan. He's come a long way to make it here and it seems like he will flourish.

 

He's filling Meyers role, so much of what he does on Defense is going to look like a big improvement. No hate to Meyers, I respect him, but we all know how it is...

 

You may want to take a deeper dive before you call Collins a poor man's Cody Zeller. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Based on their collegiate performance, Zeller would be, at best, a poor man's Zach Collins.

Start by looking at advanced stats, like TS%, TRB% and BLK%. Collins wins on all counts.

As freshmen, Collins averaged almost as many rebounds and 50% more blocks in 17 MPG as Zeller did in 28 MPG.

And Zeller was the 4th pick in the draft, making Collins look like a real bargain at 10.

BNM

 

Curious what they say here...

http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/sto...to-kings-pick-swap-including-zach-collins-nba

Don't know why I still care about ESPN though, I'm sure I could come up with what is said if I thought about it.

 

Poor man's Cody Zeller? Wtf? His stats alone ask you, "WTF?"

 

But...but...but... The 15th and 20th should've netted us the 5th pick in the draft!

 

Hated this pick originally but I've come around to it, looking at the pfs around the league I think he will struggle for a little bit, then come on strong after adjusting to physicality and speed. I stopped doubting people based on getting their shot blocked because they are good enough to figure it out. Most of his shots will be uncontested as he will undoubtedly be the beneficiary of Dame, CJ, Nurk. Also, it wouldn't surprise me to see them try to get Crabbe in with the starters permanently. Dame, CJ, Crabbe/Hark, Collins, Nurk would really elevate his level of play and relieve a lot of pressure from rushing his shot. It would let him do what he does best by crashing the glass with little attention, and he has a sweet stroke even if it takes a tick to begin his motion but with the wide open shots he would get hopefully he would cash in. Meyers has a garbage setup and thinks slow as molasses and still can get plenty of shots AND MORE because of the shooters around him and passing/spacing of nurk

 

I'm really digging the pau gasol comp someone made on here. It's also funny because we have a version of Marc at center.

 

If not this season, the following season, our starting lineup is fucking solid as fuck, especially if someone establishes themselves as our 3 (Moe, please?).

 

Ok, I take it back. The next Bird was in this draft and the Celtics selected him.

BNM

 

I'm liking this future. I've wanted Collins for awhile now. Aside from a true 3 and D swing man, we pretty much have what we need going forward. I think the pairing of Collins and Nurk is going to be beautiful.

Anyone have any good Z Collins comparisons? I'm trying to stay away from the white on white comps, unless it just makes perfect sense. I can't quite think of a good comparison.