Charlotte Hornets: Just how good can Cody Zeller be?
Cody Zeller is one of the NBA’s best-kept secrets and arguably the Charlotte Hornets’ most underrated player but can he continue to improve?
In his first four seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, Cody Zeller has gotten better every year by upping his points, rebounds, blocks and shooting percentage. If he continues this trend, his career could reach heights that once seemed unimaginable for the Indiana native. There’s no doubting that he has been an important player for the Queen City team.
But just how good can the 7-footer actually be?
FiveThirtyEight.com puts Zeller in the category of a “Borderline All-Star.” Their CARMELO player projections “identifies similar players throughout NBA history and uses them to develop a probabilistic forecast of what a current NBA player’s future might look like.”
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Becoming a borderline all-star is a pretty high ceiling for a player who was once close to being labeled as a bust. In the past few years, he has developed into one of the best screen setters and pick and roll big man in the NBA.
Cody was arguably Charlotte’s second best player last year. Although his stats don’t reflect his actual impact at only 10.3 PPG and 6.5 RPG, Zeller’s impact was mostly on display when he missed games last season as the Hornets only had a 3-17 record without him.
It’s unclear how Dwight Howard will impact or stunt the growth of Zeller this year and going forward. If Cody is going to be relegated to a bench role, it could severely hurt his numbers but his impact could still be the same, if not, greater. Steve Clifford has said multiple times that both big men will get plenty of playing time and The Big Handsome will still see plenty of important minutes.
At this point in their career’s, I think that Zeller is not only the better fit for Charlotte but also the better player individually. At only 24-year old, he still has plenty of time to develop and there’s a good chance that he could learn some valuable skills from Dwight Howard (like he did with Al Jefferson) so that in a couple years, Cody can take over as the Hornets’ starting center.
Now becoming an all-star or a borderline one will be a daunting task. Not only are there plenty of other talented big man but the rule changes for the all-star game make it even more difficult for bigs to be selected. Only two true big men in Kevin Love and Paul Millsap were named last year.
It’s strange to say but outside of Malik Monk, Kemba Walker and maybe Dwayne Bacon, Cody has the most potential going forward on Charlotte’s roster. According to FiveThirtyEight‘s projections, Kemba is the only other player on the team to be in the same category (Borderline All-Star) as Zeller.
Next: Will Dwight have a career resurgence in Charlotte?
There’s an argument to be made that the 7-footer is one of the most underrated players in the NBA. While I never expect Cody Zeller to make an all-star team, that doesn’t mean that he can’t at least be in the conversation or just on the outside looking in. A player who’s potential and future was once questioned after a couple seasons in the league, is now looking brighter than ever.