Zaza Pachulia Breakdown: 13 points and 11 rebounds in a winning effort

With all of the stars in the NBA a lot of times many of the great role players get overlooked. One of the favorite parts about scouting is watching for serviceable role players. When developing players 80% of them won’t become anything more than that. It’s important not only as a coach, but player as well to understand what makes them valuable.

Zaza Pachulia has developed into a very good serviceable post player in the NBA. He’s a player like Kevin Love that won’t amaze you with his athletic ability. What makes Zaza an asset to a team is his toughness and activity from the post position. He’s not a player that you run your offense through, but one that will make winning basketball plays while having very few plays to him.

Last night, Zaza was very effective with his offensive rebounding, toughness, and basketball IQ. Atlanta uses him a lot in the high post with his ability to pass, screen, and attack the rim on hard rolls and offense. Again notice , how most of his points come from being active on the offensive glass and knowing where the ball is going to come off the rim. At the end of the height he probably had less than 5 plays run to him and he finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Not everyone gets to have the ball in their hands. Zaza doesn’t get upset about it. what he does is finds ways to help his team in other ways. It’s not always about being the number one option. Pachulia understands he needs to find ways to help his team and get on the floor. Bring a tough rugged big man that can pass and be active is what makes him a solid player in the NBA that can start for more than half of the teams in the league.

Here is some footage from last night’s game vs New Jersey.