This dude is pretty big - he's like 7 ft tall too but too bad he doesn't ball and don't forget about Bateer who palyed in the NBA. With that said this Zhou kid looks like a twig that will snap with a hard foul.
if he gets bigger? Certainly. You can't teach height and length like that. If he already has the shooting touch then he just needs to get stronger and faster. And stay strong.
There's more people in the world with NBA big men size than there are NBA bigs. There's more bigs trying to get to the NBA playing in lesser leagues than there are NBA bigs. Just having size and length is a guarantee of nothing.
cause most bigs are slow lumbering giants. If you are super human big, strong, fast and athletic then you are half way there. ie: Dwight Howard
You must not have an understanding of the English language. I didn't say not to build muscle. I said build his core and not put on mass while honing his skills. Skills may always be there but they have to be honed for these guys to make it in the NBA. I haven't touched a basketball in over six months. And I could walk in that gym right now and knock down 7 of my first ten free throws at rest. But that's not honed/sharpened. I could shoot 90-95% when my skills were sharp and 80% in game conditions. This kid needs to hone his skills Wilt working his core. Lifting the 45's is fine and appropriate. Should work on increasing reps ( for stamina) while keeping the weight the same. And what he really should be doing is a ton of running and shooting. At least a thousand three balls a day starting with catch-and-shoots, continuing with catch-fake-one dribble-shoot, and then advancing on to pull ups once he can consistently nail over 50% on the first two sets. Put shine ankle weights on him. Run up and down and shoot and dunk. Defensive siding with the ankle weights and tension bands on his ankles. Practice rebounding the medicine ball and firing it to half court. Basketball skills mixed with core training.
IMO, his quickness and explosion is my concern. I could give two craps about his Mass. This isn't the 1980s... Cleans/Squats/Three-Pointers. Clint/Zhou domination...
he already has some speed and shooting touch. Plus he is long. The only question is can he defend either the power forward or center spot? And right now it looks like he's not strong enough to hold down the five so he will have to play against power forwards where he might not be quick enough or maybe strong enough. As long as he can box out and grab rebounds and hold his man he will be fine on offense because when you are that tall all you have to do is practice layups, hooks and shooting close. It's really easy to get good at that because you can always learn that. people forget that getting strong doesn't only help on defense and rebounding. It helps a lot on offense as well and makes you more of a powerhouse. Just look at LeBron, shaq , and Harden....even lowry.
He certainly has some interesting defensive potential. With the way we switch defensively, it may work in his favor to be using that quickness and 7'6 1/2" wing space out on the perimeter early on.
It's not like Zhou never seen NBA bigs . most teams in the CBA hire ex-NBA bigs and most of them were certainly not "too small for NBA" types. even if they're older it's not like dudes lose significant strength in the mid to later 30s. They don't usually send Zhou to guard the Carlos Boozers of the world, but given that his team plays a lot of Zone and switch defense he ends up on them all the time anyway. I do think the physicality issue is a thing, but it's also not as much of a thing . (he makes Carlos Boozer look very short. also, these sort of BS foul drawing he does a lot, so that's one aspect I'm more comfortable with him as a prospect, he certainly has NBA tricks in the bag already, especially on offense his skill set is pretty diverse even if he doesn't really use it all that much. ) From what I'm hearing he's about 220 lbs now, that's not great but that's basically Anthony Davis at the combines weight. it's probable that he can get it up to 230 . (one of the thing is that in China the training programs hasn't caught up yet, especially in terms of nutrition etc. which on the one hand means there's a lot of room for improvement. ) I feel his rebounding get a bit better this year at least stylistically speaking. though he's never going to be a guy that just box everyone out and will always rely a lot on tippy toe I'm just damn taller than you rebounds a lot. From a skill prospective my big thing with him right now is that I don't like his close out on defense at all, he's indecisive a lot and gets caught in between a lot (resulting in a lot of blow bys .) but on the other hand he also does things like this way more than anyone i've ever seen. ( who the F block step back jumpers and then take it all the way? that's an American player too. )
IF he's not averaging like 30+ ppg in the really weak CBA he's probably not going to average much in the NBA. Bench player with minimal playing time at best.
