Zu, and I don't mean this as a mean thing, has nowhere near the same skill level as Cousins. Zu doesn't even have the same skill level as post Achilles injury Cousins. Achilles Cousins last year in 30 games: 16.3 points, 8.2 points, 3.6 assists, 1.3 steals, 1.5 blocks on 48% shooting in 25 minutes. Clipper Zubac: 9.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.4 steals, 0.9 blocks on 54% shooting in 20 minutes. Even digging into the advanced stats, the only place Clipper Zubac is better than DeMarcus is Ortg where Zubac was 113 and Cousins was 109 and Zubac has a better TRB%. But after that, DeMarcus has a better Drtg, better VORP, better PER, better Win Shares, better BPM, better STL%, BLK%, and TOV%. Most people weren't impressed with DeMarcus who was injured again in the playoffs. Playoff DeMarcus: 7.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.8 blocks on 40% from the field in 16.6 minutes. Playoff Zubac: 5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 0.5 steals, 0.5 blocks on 50% from the field in 10 minutes. Zubac couldn't even get in the games! It's no shot at Zubac, but DeMarcus was one of the best big men in the game before his injury and even coming back he's been far more effective than people give him credit for. Definitely a lot more effective than I thought he'd be.
Thanks for the breakdown. That's what I meant, even a hurt Demarcus was putting up better numbers than Zu at when he was playing at his best. Between him, McGee and AD at the 5, we're set for minutes there easily. A third stringer would only be for foul or load management.
Good news is it doesnt REALLY matter to me anymore who starts at C out of Boogie/McGee. If AD/or starting C get in foul trouble, the backup big man still allows to have a stretch big on the floor along w/a rim protector. Thanks to boogie&AD's stretch ability.
I think most of the appreciation for Zubac was emotional, mixed with a little bit of unrealized potential. Kinda feels like we should have gotten more in exchange for that trade, but I'm not worried we let go of some great big man. And the man was S-L-O-W.
One thing regarding Boogie in the playoffs, first of all he did some good plays including saving game 2 in the finals. But, if it is a given that you can't get back to 100% in the first year following an Achilles and after coming from a quad injury as well just recently I would say being @ 60% is good and 70% a damn miracle in those finals and that just isn't good enough for the NBA let alone the finals. Barring injury we are gonna get twice the player we saw in the finals this year. He has had 1 1/2 years to recover from the Achilles and by mid season the 2-year estimated "full term to get back to as close to before the injury as you are going to get" period will have passed and we will load manage him until then (if we can get some more damn bigs). He'll have the last 3 months or so of the season at full Boogie strength to prepare for the playoffs this time.
I hope we include him in promo shots with LBJ, AD & Kuz. Man has a lot of pride, it's got to hurt seeing your career have to be kick-started like this. I didn't even like that that street artist left Cousins out of that mural with the other 3. If he pays off and returns to form or close to, we are probably going to need a favor from him to resign him. Best we show him some love now.
If we had JaVale and Beasley on spectrum commercials thanks to their cool faces when doing the yelling promo's, he'll he in it. Honestly this isnt Lakers homerism, hes at his peak of maturity since being in the nba, he's humbled, hungry and he'll be 2 years removed from achilles while BEING in his prime. Once again last year to AVG 16 Pts in year 1 achilles when he tore it so late the year prior IS impressive. I'd say he could easily AVG 20 but with LeBron and AD plus the boys on the team who knows. What I'm obviously trying to say is IF he was under contract on ANYONE's team, they'd have to admit the arrow is up and to get him for only 2M... please believe someone is low key paying him out of their pockets because this isnt some old crud big man coming barely off a tear.
3.5 mil. And true about McGee/Beasels. I'm not really worried about his performance, I'm worried about resigning him come next summer when we will have neither his bird rights nor cap space. That's why I want to see him get accolades. As for someone paying "out of their pockets", endorsement deals can be greased through the line for him as well as super star treatment which could amount to the same thing anyways. As for what he could do for us, I wouldn't have thought he would have 25.2/12.9/5.4asst playing alongside AD and AD had 28.1/11.1/2.6blks. So now we're talking people also got to worry about LBJ and shooters in there? 20 pts easy. I just hope he's engaged and doesn't try to be just a spot up shooter.
Really excited for Cousins. At worst he’s still a big upgrade over what we’ve had at the center position since Pau left. He’s still got great skill in the post, can stretch the floor a little bit, clean up the boards, play pick and pop, and will bring some physicality to our front line.
