Posted by misterearl:
djsu - where does Zach's reputation as a defensive sieve originate?
I have a sneaky feeling that no one here has EVER watched Zach's game that closely. If they did, all the parrot-like kvetching over him being a low post redundancy to Eddy would have never been the accepted line of reasoning.
Based on the reports on his matchups with Garnett, it sounds like they have a nice little sub-game going.
Does a matchup rivalry happen (with a Superstar like Garnett no less) when one player dominates another?
matchup rivalry happens in postseasons.
i've seen zach play a few games live. i paid a ton of attention to him vs. maccabi - hopefully he was just taking an off night b/c he didn't play one second on the other side of the court.
one thing about the low post redundancy - i don't think it's parroting - i think it's a legitimate viable concern about this team moving forward. it's not about identical games in terms of how they shoot the ball or the moves they make, it's about how they need the ball to operate and how they don't bring anything else to the table WHEN they don't have the ball to operate.
zach averages about 2.5-3 offensive rebounds a game which comes almost every time after his own miss. this happens b/c the opposing defender is trying to guard zach while he has the ball. after the shot goes up, he doesn't have enough time to recover to grab the quick rebound as zach is very good to go after his own shot. he doesn't fade away, he is in direct position to get a rebound after he shoots. now if eddy shares the offensive load, will zach still be able to attack the offensive glass? that's to be determined but i don't think that's kvetching at all.
[Edited by - djsunyc on 10-14-2007 4:06 PM]