Time of flight and height of flight are related to the weight of the individual. So you could probably just do their max jump height normalized to their standing reach, and measure their weight, then extrapolate their speed at jumping. Not all cows are spherical, nor are idealizations about jumping.
Once they are in the air, time and height of flight have nothing to do with the weight of the individual. If you want to know how quickly somebody can get their center of mass up by a certain amount, you just need to know their weight and power. If you know those, you also know how high they can jump, and they are proportional. You can't be a "quick leaper" without being able to jump high. Sure, you can have quick reflexes, but that seems different than "quick leaper".
A quick leaper generally seem to refer to subsequent jumps from that person. I don't see what the height of someone's jump has to do with anything.
Anyway, sorry for the nitpicking. I'll just let it go and agree with you guys that Zach defies physics. Regardless, the right metric is whether or not the guy can score against taller and/or more athletic players. Zach certainly can. I'm not sure about Sullinger, but using "quick leaping" as the way to decide is not going to work.
It is a lot easier to get your next jump in earlier if you weren't in the air as long on the first one. I wouldn't really call that an advantage. I know. But I don't want to turn this into a physics class, so I'll let it go.
I'd love to understand the physics that allowed my friend with a higher P/W ratio to be up in the air longer, yet be able to get up for the second and third jumps more quickly than I could. You could educate me via PM if you'd rather not make everyone else feel stupid.
