Zizic couldn't handle Drummond. the perimeter defense was horrible.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Zizic did more than fine against Drummond when he was matched up against him in the first quarter with the first unit. Then, for some reason after full 5 minutes of play Lue decides to sub him out till the 5 min mark of the second quarter! He does it quite a lot with Zizic where he has him ready to sub in near the scorers table just to throw him right back to the bench. What's the reason for playing TT 14 mins straight in a pre-season game and have Zizic go back to the bench when he was already ready to sub in? Zizic looked fucking excellent in the first 5 minutes...on both ends of the floor.
Then, Lue's smart ass decides to match him up against Griffin and have Frye guard Drummond lol. Not to mention the fact that the refs give him absolutely zero respect. 4 of his fouls were bogus.
Some of yo uneed to look closely and see that a lot of Zizic's defensive "struggles" are the guards PnR defensive faults and lack of good weakside rotations. Zizic isn't going to block an athletic C's shot right under the rim coming from the weakside(definitely not with how he is being reffed), so stop putting him in that position. He can 200% be an effective defender and at times he looks like it.
The guy just isn't ready for a full load.
Bull...shit. I'd bet everything I have that Zizic would have looked like a fucking phenom on a well coached team that values him.
on the offensive end Zizic isn't as aggressive moving without the ball as Nance and TT are
Zizic is plenty aggressive moving without the ball in the half court, especially for a guy his size. What are you talking about? Didn't you see all the off-ball screens he was setting out there to free up Hood and Hill? But since he isn't a lob target and is surrounded by average passers at best, he just isn't able to get touches rolling to the rim. Is it so hard to give a player that big and with such good hands a bounce pass in the short roll? (had plenty of them playing with Lebron) Why is it hard to have an offensive scheme for Zizic that allows him to get touches and be effective at? why are we using the exact same sets for all 3 centers when Zizic is a completely different player with completely different set of tools and strengths? Zizic only got touches as a passer in dribble hand-offs and off of putbacks or in transition. Is it so hard to give him a good, deep touch in the post? is it that hard to force a smaller guy on him if you want even more efficiency from him? There is abolutely lack of interest from the coaching staff to play to Zizic's strengths. He would have absolutely torched whoever was guarding him in the post..guaranteed.
I don't think your being objective. your ranting about Lue not letting zizic do any handoffs or lobs but zizic scored both on a pnr after he gave someone a handoff and zizic got fed a couple time time running in the key.. he also scored on a couple post plays.
You didn't quite get me. I'm saying he gives Zizic too many hand-offs sets. This is not what he is great so why are you milking that kind of set all the time? you see that it doesn't create much separation for him as a roll man and the guards can't thread the needle. He isn't a hard roller, he doesn't effectively slip the screen or explodes as a lob target, so what's the point? Put him where he has the most gravity. Zizic is a smart roll man, but I have noticed that he is much better screening from either side (and even from a very high PnR) rather than screening from the top of the key. He can't explode hard enough or at times get good angles on his screens that close to the basket and from that angle. The defenders make easy rotations because of the small proximity between every player, and the players keep bumping him off and therefore he can't create enough separation as a roll man right now in these type of sets because the guards can't seem to make that type of pass.
I don't like Lue because I honestly think he is a bad all-around coach and that I KNOW he has a thing for certain players that just don't make sense to me. Yes, it's infuriating to me.
your even complaining about a preseason rotation
Zizic still needs some work
This wasn't a rotation. He had Zizic start, then sub him early after playing good, and theeen not start him at all in the secnd half. I'm telling you, Lue doesn't like Zizic. It almost seems to me like he is constantly trying to prove that he doesn't belong in the rotation.