Cody Zeller is now on the board. Yesterday Indiana junior guard Victor Oladipo made the widely expected announcement that he would skip his senior season in Bloomington and enter June’s NBA draft. Oladipo, a First Team All-American in 2012-13 whose draft stock skyrocketed into perhaps the top five, didn’t elicit many objections to his decision.
Today at 4 p.m., Hoosier fans can expect the same official announcement from sophomore forward-center Cody Zeller.
Jeff Rabjohns of Peegs.com tweeted Monday that sources indicated Cody Zeller would go pro, and Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz confirmed the news on his Twitter account today. While the Second Team All-American’s decision is not unexpected, reaction to it is more mixed. Widespread debate as to whether Cody Zeller is ready to play in the NBA has surfaced.
Understandable, but readiness to play in the NBA matters little. Cody Zeller is making the right decision to take his game to the next level.
NBA teams draft for potential, not readiness to play. Despite his struggles with Syracuse’s athleticism and physicality in Indiana’s Sweet 16 loss, Cody Zeller is still pegged by most draft analysts as a lottery pick in this summer’s draft. And with good reason.
Zeller’s unique ability to run the floor as a big man, all by itself, makes him attractive to NBA teams with a first-round selection. He still is a gifted passer from the low post. And in spite of flaws in his game that might have been exposed in his second year on campus, he improved his scoring and rebounding totals even as teammate Oladipo surged into a more prominent offensive role for the Hoosiers.
Yes, he has some flaws that he needs to address if he wants to be a starter or regular rotation player in the league for a decade or more to come. Sure, there might be a question of whether Cody Zeller can ever be a great pro. You know what? Another year at Indiana wasn’t going to address those flaws nor alter the possibility of his not making an impact at the next level.
(For the record, I’m not saying he absolutely won’t. With the right situation and great coaching, I think Cody Zeller at least can be a solid, reliable rotation player.)
He’ll have basketball as his full-time gig rather than having to balance it with a full load of college coursework. He’ll have a NBA-level coaching staff to teach him how to play his position. He’ll have access to weights just as he would have had at Indiana. Difference? He’ll get to do it all — probably with greater yields of improvement — while making seven figures as a professional.
And if that’s not enough? Look at Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert. He spent a full summer working with Bill Walton, and it did wonders for his game — made him an All-Star. There’s no reason Zeller couldn’t do the same. In fact, I doubt he’d even be able to seek such tutelage if he were still in college due to NCAA restrictions.
Bottom line, is The Big Handsome ready to go to the NBA? Ready to be an impact player in the NBA? Maybe not. But the scouts and analysts see things in his game that could translate into value to a NBA franchise in the coming years. Enough to garner him lottery status. That’s all that matters.