Rocco Zikarsky Draft Analysis

NBA Projection: Fringe

1. Draft Age

• 18.9 years (7th percentile amongst 1st round drafted players between 2004-2024)

• Australian NBL league

2. Physical Tools

• Height without shoes: 7' 3.00''

• Wingspan: 7' 4.75''

• NBA Size: C

3. Team Role

• Brisbane finished 8th out of 10 in Australian league

  • Brisbane had the worse DRtg in Australian league

• Strengths

  • high orb%

• Flaws

  • 12th in minutes on team

  • low pts/g

  • low FG% for center

  • low FT% and 3P%

  • low ast%

  • low blk% for centre

  • ast/tov = 0.5

4. Nearest Neighbours

1. Star: Lamelo

2. Starters (NBA_Start% >= 50%): Sarr, Ferguson, Giddey

3. Rotation (VORP>=0):

4. Fringe (VORP<0): Klintman, Travers, Rupert, Johnson, Dieng

5. Analysis

1. Sarr and Klintman are the only Australian league players in a similar mould, but are more small C or Wings unlike the 7’3 Rocco. Rocco is big for a NBA C, almost 3 inches taller than Kessler with a longer wingspan.

2. Playing so few minutes for a poor Australian team (worse defensive rating in the league), there is a lot of extrapolation that is needed for Rocco’s NBA projection.

3. Stats that stand out:

   1. low FG% for someone who is 7’4

   2. he had a lower blk% than Sarr despite being a traditional C

   3. he had almost double the orb% of Sarr

      1. Sarr’s orb% dropped in the NBA (8.4% => 7.1%) as did Klintman’s

4. Rocco a young C that is bigger than a lot of NBA C. The 2 areas where traditional Cs thrive (FG% and blk%) were poor in the Australian league and would need to be much higher in the NBA for Rocco to have a rotation spot. Rocco’s main skill in the Australian league, orb%, may be slightly inflated when comparing Sarr’s and Klintman’s drop in the NBA.

Predicted NBA Outcome: Fringe

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