Dave in Green

Zeke and DJ played together for the East team in the Reese's College All-Star Game at the Georgia Dome (link). Pretty dismal news about Zeke not playing a single minute today. If he gets into a game, he's going to have play the most intense ball he's ever played every second he's on the floor.

At the beginning of last season, I was impressed with the amount of movement Pat could make in the deep post without getting called for moving his pivot foot. For some reason, he seemed to regress during the season in that and other areas. It was disappointing that he didn't improve his overall game more as the season went on. In HS he went from an ordinary sub in his junior year to a go-to, star player as a senior. Maybe Coach Dambrot could check in with Pat's HS coach to find out what helped motivate that transformation. It may be as simple as building the offense more around him and making him the primary option on offense, and then letting him play through his mistakes rather than jerking him off the floor. I agree that the Zips have good strength and depth at the 2/3/4 and really big question marks at the 5 and 1 positions. A lot of HS players come into the college game with good potential that ends up never being fully realized. The Zips will need at least one of their PGs and one of their centers to go from completely unproven at the D-I college level to better than average. Otherwise they will not be able to improve on last season's record. Stellar play from the 2/3/4 positions alone could make the Zips a good team but not an NCAA tournament game-winning team.

The Free Dictionary, Acronym Finder, Wikipedia and other reference sources list LBJ as an acceptable acronym for LeBron James.

@jupitertoo, it's been a long time since I've mentioned the difference I see between black and white versus shades of grey. I'd be worried if UA had given Coach Bowden carte blanche to bring in a bunch of thugs to instantly turn a losing Zips football program into a winner (pure black). But I don't believe that's the case. I believe that Coach Bowden has been given high standards to adhere to, and I trust that any players he brings in who may have had a troubled past are good risks. I don't object to jump-starting a dead program as long as it's done intelligently and with class. I'm going to continue to believe that's what's happening with the Zips football program unless proven otherwise. I think the scenario you present is the blackest, worst case scenario. For now, I find it to be an acceptable shade of grey.

Well said. If Melo has the work ethic to improve his conditioning, he has the ability to distribute the ball for long minutes. That's the most important function of the PG. Team chemistry will be critical, and the PG is the key player in team chemistry by helping get everyone else in the game. The Zips have plenty of offensive firepower if they have someone who can get them the ball in good scoring position. A modest scoring game is all they need from Melo. Nyles is more of a combo guard, as he can both dish and score. It will be interesting to see if Melo's distribution game is enough better than Nyles' to offset Nyles' shooting advantage. As far as replacing Zeke's points, don't forget that Pat was a much more prolific scorer in HS than Zeke. Pat has more of a shooter mentality than Zeke and could potentially lead the Zips in scoring if he's designated as a primary scoring option. Pat is more aggressive than Zeke at calling for the inside pass and going after the ball when it comes his way. He has some good moves in the low post, and, like Zeke, he will be going against mostly shorter defenders in the MAC. The Zips have the potential to dominate the MAC. But it requires that several players play closer to their full potential than they did last season. If they don't, the Zips could certainly finish fourth in the MAC.

Yes, Tree and Nick are on track for a fifth season of eligibility. That was a more educated evaluation than I expected. I think they nailed it with the question mark at PG, and were pretty optimistic about the Zips' chances if the PG position produces more than expected:

@Z.I.P., of course we have the same thread every year. There's a new Zips basketball team, a new basketball season and a new Top 144 every year. All the sports have their same conversations every year -- football, soccer, etc. It's the annual cycle of sports. If we were all cicadas, we'd only do it once every 17 years.

No surprise that Nyles fits right in with the Zips. He played alongside many of them (including Q) in last season's Cleveland + Akron Am Pro Basketball Summer League at Walsh University. They've been teammates for more than a year now and are far from total strangers.

Likewise, it seems as if others badly want to deny him credit for anything good that happens at the University regardless of involvement. Like you, I'm willing to wait for definitive proof before reaching a definitive conclusion. In the meantime it's fair to discuss what appears might be happening. I think it's fair to say that some comments will be fairer than others.

These types of rankings are generally pretty conservative, and penalize heavily for key player losses. Zips lost 3 starters (Zeke, Walsh, Rico) and a key sub (Chauncey). Even factoring in the return of Q, they are unlikely to rank the Zips much better than #100. The returning players and freshmen will have to prove themselves before the Zips get much national respect.

Interesting that Arnett Moultrie is on the 76ers team. Zeke was the only player Moultrie faced two seasons ago who was able to shut him down when the Zips beat Mississippi State. Moultrie went on to have a great junior season, was drafted #27 and started showing some game for the 76ers late last NBA season. Going back to Julian Mavunga, I'm not sure how much he raised his NBA stock by playing in Italy last season. In nearly 23 minutes per game he averaged 7.3 points on 48.3% shooting and 4.4 rebounds. It's hard to believe his team allowed him to shoot 33 3-pointers, as he made only 4 (12.1%)! Mavunga Link

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players Pick your role and play it to the hilt

Right, an undrafted free agent like Mavunga (or Zeke) is a different story from a drafted player. The Pacers liked Mavunga's summer league play so much that they invited him to continue individual workouts with the team over the rest of the summer, which helped give him a good taste of NBA training. They liked him enough in summer practice to invite him to their preseason training camp. But a camp invite is not a guarantee of a contract, and Mavunga apparently thought his odds weren't quite high enough. So he passed on Indiana's preseason training camp and on his own signed a contract with a pro team in Italy. Mavunga believes a season of pro ball in Europe will increase his NBA chances more than attending Pacers preseason training camp, plus he's earning a pretty decent salary in Italy.

@zippyman23 and GameChngr44, my understanding is similar to both of yours. After a college player is drafted, the team that drafts him owns the rights to sign him to a contract. The player can't go sign with another NBA team, but is free to sign with a team not directly connected with the NBA. If the player either by himself or at the suggestion of the team decides that he could benefit from playing overseas, he can either go seek a deal by himself or ask the NBA team to help him find a good place to play. In most cases this is a cooperative effort between the player and NBA team. Technically, the NBA team does not "send" (force) him overseas but may assist him in finding a good opportunity to improve his game to NBA level. Both the player and the NBA team can benefit from a cooperative effort. I can also understand how this might be loosely described as the NBA team "sending" the player overseas, but in a cooperative sense of the player agreeing to be sent. "Stashing" a player in a league outside the U.S. is just NBA slang for this practice.

There are two ways to look at "monster jam" -- the jam is a monster or the player jamming is a monster.

The sticking point here appears to be the word "send," which can be interpreted as forcing someone to do something against their will versus mutual consent of the team and player. The precise question seems to be whether or not an NBA team can force a player to play overseas against his will, or if it's required that the player agrees to play overseas with the mutual agreement that if he can prove himself overseas that he's more likely to stick on the NBA team's roster.

An analysis of the accuracy of 2013 NBA mock drafts is now up. As predicted and expected, accuracy was down this year. Per usual, some were way more accurate than others. Even the best nail only about a half dozen picks, but are close on many others. So the best you can hope for is a rough approximation. Most impressive to me is David Kay, who was #1 the previous two drafts and #2 this year. That's pretty consistent, and suggests to me that if you only want to check one mock draft to get a rough idea of what might happen, Kay's thesportsbank.net mock may be the one to check. Grading NBA Mock Drafts 2013 From Best To Worst

I've always appreciated how much people reveal of their inner selves online, knowingly or otherwise.

Great point, Dr Z. NBA TV is also available on TWC. I don't currently pay for that service, but will get it if Zeke ends up playing for any NBA team other than the Cavs.

@Dr Z, you'll recall I previously said that most agreed this was going to be the most unpredictable draft in the last decade. So no surprise at the general lack of accuracy. This site ranked the accuracy of NBA mock drafts in both 2011 and 2012, and I'd expect them to do the same for 2013. It's a time-consuming job to do it right, and I see no need to spend many hours replicating this.

@GameChngr44, I'm looking forward to watching all of Zeke's games via broadband streaming on my big screen. The package for all the Orlando and Las Vegas Summer League games is $14.99, with info at this link. If you have a fast enough internet connection, you can stream the games in full 720p (HDTV). Here's the main link to the NBA Summer League 2013 site. It has lots of info, including times and dates for every game. Zeke's first game will be 9 a.m. Sunday, July 7.

Tar-Baby.

@GoZips, I know that you walk a fine line in trying to share with hardcore fans who really care the best possible information on Zips basketball without giving away more than you're supposed to, I know that you can't publicly share all that you know, and I know that I'm not the only one here who really appreciates your efforts to do the best you can. Thank you, sir.

@ZippyRulz, there are no rewards on ZN.o other than what you take away yourself. You done good. Enjoy the feeling. Hustle Belt has a nice analysis of how both Zeke and DJ might fit into the 76ers organization based on Philly basically blowing up their program and starting over from scratch. I'm sure that everyone involved in advising Zeke on his professional basketball career gave a lot of thought to the situations at all the teams that approached Zeke, and decided that the 76ers opportunity was the best available for the Orlando Summer League. This is going to be fun to watch as it develops. Zeke and DJ could be a great combination if they work together to help make each other better. But Zeke also has an opportunity to play for another NBA team in the Las Vegas Summer League. Stay tuned. Hustle Belt's Analysis

We've all seen that Zeke has strengths and weaknesses like everyone else, including every player in the NBA. If you focus on his weaknesses and assume that he can never learn to overcome those weaknesses, then you logically conclude that he can never have a successful NBA career. If you focus on his strengths and assume that he can learn to overcome his weaknesses, then you logically conclude that he can have a successful NBA career. It's really as simple as that. There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? Zeke must dream of things that never were, and ask why not?