Cavs’ Larry Drew is right in praising Ante Zizic for his progression

Zizic can be a reliable bench interior scorer in the coming years

Against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday, Zizic again flashed his potential, as he finished with 14 points on 63.6 percent true shooting, to go with 10 rebounds, four assists (though he unfortunately had five turnovers, too) and one block in 31 minutes (per ESPN).

Here’s some of that on display, courtesy of Z. Highlights.

His extended minutes-share came as a result of Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson reportedly being ruled out due to left shoulder soreness and rest (per the team), and due to Zizic’s strong play and him consistently showing improvement as the year has progressed, Cavs head coach Larry Drew gave him a nice shoutout postgame (per Sam Amico of Amico Hoops).

Amico said that Drew “was beaming about Zizic after the game, with Drew telling anyone who would listen how much he loves the young center’s progress.”

Zizic’s post-up scoring has graded out into just the 14th percentile (on a frequency of 23.3 percent, per Synergy), so on the surface, that’s not great, but when Love has been on the floor with “Big Z,” or at least Collin Sexton or Cedi Osman, who both have shown they can be lethal perimeter shooters, Zizic has shown more consistency in the low-post area, as in those scenarios, he has more room to work.

Zizic has a quality jump hook, which is a solid foundation for him at 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan (per DraftExpress), and when he makes up his mind with plenty of shot clock to work with, he will at times show he can make a sweeping hook to counter that against defenders of similar size to him that are expecting him to return to that well.

If Zizic can develop a better drop step and some fadeaway acumen in the lane and going to the baseline, he’ll really increase his ceiling as a bench scorer in the coming years.