Cleveland Cavaliers: Does Ante Zizic have a future?

Ante Zizic’s future with the Cleveland Cavaliers is in question with an injury keeping him out four weeks. Will we even see him back in Cleveland?

Ante Zizic looks like a 90s NBA player who just hopped out of a basketball time machine. He’s a lumbering center, under seven feet tall, who hasn’t shot a 3-pointer in 91 career games. It’s a perimeter-based league and Cleveland Cavalier’s new head coach John Beilein values good perimeter shooters. Zizic appears like a mismatched man.

Yet, the 22-year-old was a first-round pick in 2016 after moderate success in Croatia. So he has potential, or at least he did at one point.

The Cavaliers lack size, with Zizic being the team’s tallest player at 6’11”. It seems he should at least get a puncher’s chance in 2019-20.

A plantar fasciitis injury throws his chances into question. Zizic is expected to miss about four weeks, leaving the door open for the younger Marques Bolden in the battle to backup Tristan Thompson or John Henson (who has a history of unreliability). If Bolden is serviceable, will Zizic find minutes when he returns from injury?

Before answering that question, let’s note what Zizic does well. He averaged 7.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in under 20 minutes per game last year. After 91 career games, Zizic’s field goal percentage is 58.3 percent. His effective field goal percentage is also at 58.3 percent.

In other words, Zizic takes good shots and makes most of them. Last season, more than half of the big man’s attempts came at the rim. He finished 66.3 percent of those looks.

His post presence was most palpable in a January game against the Denver Nuggets. He smoked Nikola Jokic for 23 points, finishing pirouettes in the paint with hook shots and bumping off picks for easy buckets. You can tell by these highlights Zizic could be a reliable post option.

And it’s not like he’s taking outdated fadeaways or unreliable 15-footers. Zizic anchors himself near the rim, using his wide frame to establish an immovable presence. This, coupled with his natural skill makes him challenge to defend when dug deep.

Even though he appears like one of those gigantic trees in Lord of the Rings, Cleveland’s offense actually quickens with Zizic on the floor. The Cavaliers averaged 99.35 possessions per game with him in the lineup. If that were average for the Cavs, they’d be the 20th slowest team in the NBA. Seems bad, but the Cavaliers only averaged 97.38 possessions a game last year, second to worst in the league.

And the team may look to play fast this year behind a young, back-court combo of Collin Sexton and Darius Garland.

By comparison, the aforementioned Nuggets averaged a bit more than 98 possessions per game with Jokic on the floor. Of course, Jokic and Zizic aren’t even in the same stratosphere. Jokic just proves that even in the up-paced NBA, you can still be a bit slower at center and still excel.

Still, Zizic’s future with the Cavs may be most predicated on the play of the undrafted Bolden. If he proves reliable, there’d be little need for Zizic with the former Duke Blue Devil on the roster.

Thompson and potentially Larry Nance Jr. are in the mix for center minutes as well. And the fact that Zizic is only three years removed from being a first-round pick means he still has, at least, a smidgen of trade value. With a backup in hand and decreasing value, Zizic’s Cavaliers clock is ticking.

Does Zizic have a future on the Cavaliers? Yes. He played in 59 games last year, making the most of his minutes. With Kevin Love morphing into a perimeter player, Cleveland lacks any real presence inside. Plus, Zizic is still really young and has two years left on his rookie contract. 

Yet, this feels like a make-or-break year for the big man. And he’s probably not alone. Cleveland hopes to shed weight as it constructs a roster around its recent high picks — and maybe Love. If Zizic struggles, he may find himself spending more time in Canton with the G League team than Cleveland.