If Cleveland Cavaliers third-year big Ante Zizic has a great showing in training camp, that should grant him minutes early on in the 2019-20 season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have a bunch of bigs that are set to be on their regular season roster at the moment, and three of those players are natural centers, in Tristan Thompson, John Henson and Ante Zizic.
Other bigs include Cleveland’s best player, Kevin Love, a player that is a part of their future core in Larry Nance Jr., who has played both the 4 and 5 a good amount in his career to this point (according to Basketball Reference), and two-way Dean Wade as well (but most of his playing time will most likely be with the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s G-League affiliate).
So in terms of likely starters for now, though the regular season is still not until Oct. 23, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, he sees at this point a Darius Garland and Collin Sexton pairing in the backcourt, with Cedi Osman at the 3, Nance at the 4 and Kevin Love playing center to start a bunch of games, given that Fedor sees Cleveland head coach John Beilein valuing the spacing provided by all five players being three-point shooting threats (and also quality playmaking provided by Nance and Love as bigs).
Even with John Henson (assuming he’s healthier) and Tristan Thompson being better defenders at this point, though, than Zizic, I would hope that if Zizic showed continued progression offensively in the low post, where he already is pretty polished as a scorer, and factoring in his mid-range touch (47.1% on shots 10-16 feet out last year, per Basketball Reference), and Zizic is a bit more competent as a team defender, that he’d get a spot in Beilein’s rotation pretty early on in the upcoming season.
Henson and Thompson (both 28) are both on expiring contracts, and with the Cleveland Cavaliers in a rebuilding scenario for the next likely two years or so anyway, it doesn’t seem smart to play them over Zizic (22), for a good chunk of next season.
As we’ve hit on a number of times in relation to Zizic, Cleveland needs to decide whether or not they want to pick up his team option upcoming in October, and I’ve expressed before why I think that decision should be a simple one, in that they should definitely do so.
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Earlier in the offseason, it was reported that Zizic is in peak shape, and with him reportedly add good functional muscle to his frame, that should help him even more as a screen-setter, and though it was reported by Fedor that on occasion, Henson or Thompson could realistically start against more physical centers for Love such as Andre Drummond, with the Cavaliers in a full-rebuild anyway, why not give at least that sort of task to Zizic, who is bigger than both Thompson and Henson in terms of weight, and at least has a 7-foot-3 wingspan?
Now I get it. The Cleveland Cavaliers will probably play Henson and/or Thompson meaningful minutes earlier on to potentially increase their trade value.
That being said, teams at this point have a solid idea of what the value for those players are, anyhow, in that they (especially Thompson in terms of screening), are high quality screeners and good interior defenders when healthy, but as scorers (aside from a bit of floor spacing potential last year from Henson), they are both limited in terms of repertoire, and Zizic has a varying scoring skill set at the 5 (as evidenced by a promising 15.3 points per-36 minute mark, per Basketball Reference last year).
As we’ve often highlighted, Zizic has much more ability in that regard, and again, if he tears it up in training camp, he should warrant a spot in meaningful minutes in a rebuilding situation early on into next season.
With Cavs owner Dan Gilbert always willing to take on bad contracts to help the team, anyway, Cleveland should be able to get something back such as a future draft pick and a bad contract small forward for at least Thompson, provided TT is healthier, and getting Zizic some minutes early on should come if a trade does happen.
Regardless, even if Henson does stick around, Zizic should get chances not just in the latter part of the season, because he could be a key bench interior presence in coming years, and his 2020-21 option would only be for $3.87 million (per Spotrac) anyway, so Beilein and company should let the big man eat in the post and as a roller sooner rather than later, if he knocks their socks off in camp.
Going into his third year and with the team having a player development focus, anyhow, they should play Zizic a bunch if he’s ready to roll, as again, we’ve emphasized.
This is a key training camp for Big Z, though, and a rotational spot obviously won’t be handed to him, but with him seemingly having what the organization is looking for in terms of work ethic for young players, I would imagine Zizic has taken the challenge head on already, and that’d only help his case for a rotation spot maybe earlier on in 2019-20 than one might expect.