How will Zhou Qi be viewed by the end of the season?

Where did I ever make it seem like it is an impossible task? I said he needed to beef up both physically and mentally. The first is easy, just requires willpower, proper diet, and lots of time at the gym lifting weights. The 2nd is a lot more challenging as he needs to grow a pair and learn to assert himself physically in the paint. If he wants to be the type of PF you want him to be, he has to be able to establish paint dominance.

 

It is true. There is no arguing this. Zhou Qi is literally chopsticks skinny. He regularly gets pushed around in the paint. Why do you think people differentiate between build and NBA ready build for prospects coming out of college?

 

Yeah, well I'm not even going to entertain the mental criticism of him. Not sure where that is coming from.

I really disagree, the NBA today is really not all that reliant on strength. So many stretch 4s get away with it, we are talking about a league where he can gey away with flopping for defense should anyone decide to post him up.

I see him regularly get blocks and affect shots at the rim too. Clint Capela weighs 11 more pounds than him and is a bonafide center.

Again, no Ewing, Hakeem, Mutumbo, Shaq in the paint anymore.

 

He could be a Channing Frye type contributor in 2 years if he munches on a few more gool ol American Steak and continue working on his range.

Right now he's too thin to defend or rebound, too inconsistent on his 3pt shot.

 

Zhou Qi plays like very passively. Not sure how you don't see that when he plays.

You can keep parroting that, but it doesn't make it true in the slightest. For one, Zhou is not a stretch 4. He has range, but with his skillset and soft touch around the basket, he needs to be playing a D-Mo role. You remember how D-Mo was super ineffectual until he put on muscle and could stand his ground much better in the paint? Same thing here and nothing you say will ever change that.

He blocks shots because he is tall. Shawn Bradley and Thabeet both blocked shots and they were both terrible basketball players.

Clint Capela is also 3 inches shorter than Zhou and DESPITE that, weighs 11 more pounds than him with pure muscle. If you can't take a look at the two of them and see the different, you seriously need to make an appointment with your local eye doctor. Speaking of Clint, you ever wonder why he's STILL putting in muscle? So he can bang down low.

 

I don't see it. I'm not one of these psycho-analyzers, I simply don't see it.

Dirk plays soft, Lebron plays soft, Yao plays passive. Unless the guy goes out and says he's intimidated by the competition I don't see it.

And you can keep parroting that and still continue to ignore that this isn't the 90s.

Why do you keep comparing him to Dmo? Their games are not similar at all. Dmo was a back to the basket post player that could spot up and shoot, Zhou is more of a face up player that can shoot and defend above the rim.

So I think your opinion of him fails because he's more of a face up player, which is actually fine for a 7 foot player in the modern NBA.

For Dmo bulking up helped him because he needed to bang in the post to score, this is not how Zhou scores in the first place. If you want to turn Zhou into something he's not then yes, bulk him up, teach him post moves, and hope it works out...what he brings already though are skills that are not common for players his height, I'd rather they hone the skills he already has then try to fit him into a box he may not fit into.

Come on now. Bradley was an actual NBA player that averaged a ton of blocks. Thabeet was a bust. You don't just block shots because you are tall lol. It helps, of course, but if you think Zhou gets his blocks just because he's tall then you don't know how this works. Otherwise, every single tall guy would be in the NBA. It's not that simple.

I mean, you realize Shawn Bradley is the all-time blocks leader for the Mavs right? Why are you comparing him to a bust that could barely stick on an NBA team?

Tmac really ruined that dudes career, people forget he was a good player.

The difference is again, they are not the same type of player, you seem to have it in your mind that every big has to fit a certain prototype. That's not how it goes.

Zhou's going to gain weight, but he's never going to be strong and that likely is never going to be his strength, that's fine. If he works on his finesse skills he's going to be a match up nightmare for plenty of guys.

 

I'm not sure that this works. Again using Shawn Bradley as an example, when drafted by the 76ers he was 7' 6" and weighted just 235 lbs.. The 76ers tried just what you are proposing - even hiring a dietician to bulk him up. I recall one tactic they used was to have him drink high caloric milk shakes 3 times a day. Anyway, the results were decidedly mixed. Throughout his "career" he was inconsistent in scoring and rebounding but excelled at blocking shots. Qi reminds me a lot of Bradley only with much better offensive skills. As things now stand, he's a project with an unknown amount of long term potential.

 

I'm not sure where you see him playing passively. On offense, he might look passive because he's not sure where to be and it looks like we only want him to shoot 3's. But he hasn't been passive on D in any of the games he's played in for Houston. Not one.

 

Zhou going hard in the paint. Becoming fan favorite preseason player so far.

 

FIFY

 

That begs the question, what was the deal with all those 1 rebound games in Summer League?

 

Who needs D-Mo when we have Chee-Mo

 

He's not a great rebounder, that's true. But I can't find a single summer game where he had only one rebound.

 

He plays passive on offense and has always been passive. He doesn't go at people with aggression, which you would expect someone of his size and agility. On defense, he gets easily boxed out and relies on his height to stop people rather than solid footwork. This is why you see him backpedaling quite often and then uses his height to compensate for mistakes in defensively positioning.

It is not about the 90's as you keep foolishly trying to shove on me. I don't care if its now, 5 years before, a decade, or even two decades. It has to do with the physicality of the NBA and his lack of strength is a big part of it. Take Anderson for example. He is the epitome of a stretch 4 on offense and still weighs 240 pounds. That's a whopping 30 pounds more than Zhou Qi. KD came in at 215 pounds as a SF and has put on a fair amount of weight in muscles since then. Clint Capela came in at 212 and has since put on at least 20lbs of muscle according to himself. KG was another good example. He came into the league skinny as HELL and eventually became sculpted as he built up his muscle mass. Again it has nothing to do with what era you are from, but absolutely EVERYTHING to do with surviving the physicality and violence in the interior.

I use D-Mo as an example because he is the most recent example people can remember for the Rockets. When he came in, he was very lanky. He got bullied all the time. He got knocked over. He fell over. He was pushed all over the interior. He hit the weights, put on weight, and then he was able to hang in the paint. Again, playing style doesn't have much to do with it. Again, it has everything to do with the physicality of how the game is played among big men. You ask any professional basketball scout, trainer, coach, etc and they will all tell you that the kid needs to put on weight and a lot of it. This is a fact of basketball life for bigs.

My bringing up of Thabeet and Bradley as NBA players weren't to compare the two of them, but to showcase that if you are tall, you ARE going to get blocks. If you contest every shot, you are going to get blocks. That doesn't necessary mean that you are a great shot blocker, but you will still get blocks. Zhou is a legit 7 footer. This means he will get his share of blocks simply because he takes up that space in the basketball atmosphere. Not a hard concept to comprehend.

I never said he needed to make muscles and weight his strength. What I did say is that in order to get good, he HAS to gain a lot more muscle. I am not expecting him to turn into Z-Bo or Malone or Ewing, but I do expect him to look more like KG after he bulked up.

 

You see passive, I see a guy who is a willing passer and doesn't want to do too much because he's a rookie. Rookies are not supposed to come in games and put up shots. Defense is a lot more complicated to tell if a guy is being passive or intimidated.

It actually is though, we really going to act like the modern NBA is the same as the 90s? Today's game is a game that favors finesse.

Anderson's weight really does nothing for him though, not like he's known for rebounds, blocks, or interior defense, dude is really just a tall SF.

Qi will gain weight, but you realize that adding too much of said weight will make him more prone to leg injuries?

Nah, I think his playstyle is what matters a lot more. You are telling me you'll tell a guard like Curry to bulk up and add strength to his game? Versus what....a bully guard whose game relies on being stronger than other PGs?

This was the knock on Durant, that he was too weak and thin, can't lift weights, blah blah blah. For a player more reliant on skills and finesse on offense, that stuff doesn't matter. For a player known for defending, like Artest, it is pretty much necessary.

Qi won't be a monster defensively, I don't see his frame changing radically, I see him as a stretch 5, something extremely rare in this game and with MDA coaching this team and CP3 beaming about his shot it tells me this is how the Rockets wish to develop him.

The idea is that you get all the benefits of having a small ball lineup without actually going small.

Except Thabeet didn't really get blocks, he did his rookie year after that it was straight downhill for that dude. Guards averaged more blocks than him. You just don't want to give him credit for being an instinctive shot blocker. Actually using your length to get blocks and not get fouls is also instinctively getting blocks. How long did it take Yao to learn that sometimes all he had to do was raise his arms and stand his ground for instance?

Offensively I just disagree, defensively so that he can defend the post and get better at rebounds, of course...but you can still be terrible on defense and be an all-star caliber player.

 

Im intrigued about our Qi.
Totaly raw but he could be a nice rim protector for us. Very nice feel for weak side help and looong arms.
He ok

 

i don't mind him not beefing up if he can hit 3s consistently.

and i don't think you can beef up easily while keeping your 3s accurate. i mean, you don't see any beefy player (except kinda fat ones) who jack up 3s on a consistent basis. typically, if you're all muscle, you're there to do dirty work in the paint.

if you want him getting just a bit fatter, no problem. take tons of creatine and you'll get there in a jiff.

 

I think he'd be a great stretch 4 if he can keep hitting those shots consistently. I think he'd end up getting hurt or banging a knee or something if banging in the paint but a solid bench 4 who can make it very tough to shoot over for other 4s or 3s