It's not true that "no other team" wants him, apparently. His agent said that at least six teams were interested in him. Now, the point otherwise is a good one - but I think we've done well with players who were seen as throw-ins in some deals. Bazemore was an average player when we picked him up, we had Gerald Green for nothing at one time, Shannon Brown was a throw-in, and even Ariza wasn't really doing anything before we signed him. If you include the draft, I think Zu, Nance, and Marc Gasol are three more to add to the list.
I'm shocked so many missed on Zubac. I am not exaggerating when I say this but he would have been a top 5 pick if the draft was redone next week. Hell, he might have been number 3. Basketball isn't like football, BB talent is a little easier to evaluate. I wonder if he did a Kobe and told people he may not come west to go to the right team. Only thing that makes sense.
He was projected by some to be in the mid-20s range. It's hard to find information on guys in Europe, especially young ones. They end up being a crap shoot. Zubac wasn't playing many minutes overseas and a lot of teams probably didn't get to see him play or have scouts that were involved in his scouting.
Some teams are better at scouting foreign prospects than others. I don't know that other teams invest in scouting abroad the way the Spurs and Lakers do.
IIRC Zubac and his camp told teams during the draft that he wanted to play in the NBA. He would not accept being on a team that would "draft and stash" him in Europe. The Lakers were one of the few teams that told him they'd give him a shot at NBA minutes and promised not to stash him overseas. Why? Probably a combination of the fact that we sucked so bad that we were open to the idea of giving minutes to a young unknown prospect. I also suspect that one of our international scouts really loved the kid and ranted about him to the Lakers' brass.
Meanwhile the guy he supplanted and eventually was traded away, Jusuf Nurkic, was drafted 25 spots ahead of him in the same draft at #16.
Rev is right. Zu refused to be stashed overseas. That counted out the Spurs and anyone that prescribes to their business model. Mitch was quoted after the draft as saying Zu should've been a lottery pick. I figured it was just his GM showing some love. Who knew he was serious?
i suppose for folks pining for nerlens, this is a much less expensive and theoretically equally impactful player. but i'm not sure there are many guys with more red flags than sanders...i wouldn't tell moz to quit his day job.
Why not? If he quits, he comes off our cap. But in all seriousness though. Why do we need Sanders? We have a "center of the future" in Zubac. We have a small-ball center in Black. Luke sometimes runs a small-ball lineup with Randle and Nance as our bigs. And then we have Moz. Unless we've found a way to ship off Moz, I see no reason to bring on Sanders. I wonder if Mitch has found a way to shed Moz by also shipping off Lou or something. Maybe we take a not-so-desirable contract back that isn't quite as big as Mozgov's in a position of need for us (guard?) if we throw in Lou? But who is that team? Moz and Deng are both immovable dead weight.
because Sanders plays like a small ball C but isn't small. At his peak he was Deandre Jordan like, he posted the lowest fg% for his opponents and held opposing teams fg% at a top 3 lvl. He's not old either, just forgotten and dude is a pot head in Milw of course he went nuts, getting high with nothing to do can do that to a person lol. Also he was quite a respectable PnR defending C, something Black and Zu are bad at, and most of our C's have been bad at it as well.
We need high character guys....preferably with some game (looking at you Deng). This team is immature enough, no need for more issues.
