[valentine]

I’ve never seen the guy play, but I’m intrigued and I’ve noticed him sneaking into the 1st round of mocks

Who can vouch for him? Is he an Asian Sensation, or a toothless tiger?

Can he contribute immediately, or is he a novelty act who can sell jerseys and million dollar tv deals into the orient.

Outside of Yao Ming, Its safe to say most of us have been pretty underwhelmed with Chinese players…even the 7footers. I’ve found Chinese players to be skilled, yet a little averse to physicality.

I’m on record as saying China is the sleeping dragon of world basketball, and the generation who grew up idolising Yao should be just about the right age to play pro in coming years.

Is Zhou Qi the man who leads the inevidible Chinese NBA invasion.

And which team would draft him?

[ZouldiersParticipant]

 I watched some of his game during last years FIBA asia tournament and he quite an intriguing prospect. Great length which helps him block shots w/o the need to jump. Really good shooter and moves well for his size. Decent post moves. Not much of an athlete like Jianlian and lacks strength. I think he needs 2-3 years before he can contribute on a regular basis but he’ll be a serviceable backup right away but he really needs to add weight. I say Houston may take him early second round due to chinese influence or even Boston since he’ll be a perfect fit there.

[ZouldiersParticipant]

 I watched some of his game during last years FIBA asia tournament and he quite an intriguing prospect. Great length which helps him block shots w/o the need to jump. Really good shooter and moves well for his size. Decent post moves. Not much of an athlete like Jianlian and lacks strength. I think he needs 2-3 years before he can contribute on a regular basis but he’ll be a serviceable backup right away but he really needs to add weight. I say Houston may take him early second round due to chinese influence or even Boston since he’ll be a perfect fit there.

[HitsterParticipant]

He’s listed as early 2nd round on Aran’s mock which looks a fair level for him. As said above a team like Boston with multiple 2nd rounders could easily snap him up and leave him abroad for a couple of years.

If he attends workouts then his draft value coud really change, if he impresses then he could go in first round, if not he could slide out of the draft.

[HitsterParticipant]

He’s listed as early 2nd round on Aran’s mock which looks a fair level for him. As said above a team like Boston with multiple 2nd rounders could easily snap him up and leave him abroad for a couple of years.

If he attends workouts then his draft value coud really change, if he impresses then he could go in first round, if not he could slide out of the draft.

[Lebron’s HairlineParticipant]

 Isn’t this the guy who had a lot of controversy a few years ago about being older than listed?

[Lebron’s HairlineParticipant]

 Isn’t this the guy who had a lot of controversy a few years ago about being older than listed?

[LeroyJenkinsParticipant]

No that was Rudeboy and his “PowrPuffGrlsRule” Yahoo teen chat account

[LeroyJenkinsParticipant]

No that was Rudeboy and his “PowrPuffGrlsRule” Yahoo teen chat account

[ZachAttackParticipant]

 1,631,436,754 likes to you sir…

[ZachAttackParticipant]

 1,631,436,754 likes to you sir…

[StraightOuttaMyMineParticipant]

 Leroooooyyy Jenkins get back to class!!!! 

[StraightOuttaMyMineParticipant]

 Leroooooyyy Jenkins get back to class!!!! 

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

[Lebron’s HairlineParticipant]

 Lmao Chris Hanson is watching this thread now 

[Lebron’s HairlineParticipant]

 Lmao Chris Hanson is watching this thread now 

[sweaterflexParticipant]

It’s not everything but advanced stats translations love him, have him as a top 10 prospect based on Kevin Pelton’s translations. His same translations pegged Jokic, Nurkic, and Kristaps as elite prospects. 

[sweaterflexParticipant]

It’s not everything but advanced stats translations love him, have him as a top 10 prospect based on Kevin Pelton’s translations. His same translations pegged Jokic, Nurkic, and Kristaps as elite prospects. 

[OhCanada-Participant]

The guy was brought up in the CBA which is like charity event games compared to the NBA. I would be cautious picking him top 40 there’s so many question marks. How quick is he laterally, he is 7’2 but how is his stance can he get low to cut off angles, is he a pushover because his frame is so slight, how is his motor, how is his basketball IQ and drive/motor, even his communication skills and English. He truly is a mystery selection for me and I personally wouldn’t take the risk over guys like Cornelie or Yabusele who are coming up from proven systems that have produced capable players and have been correctly scouted. High risk meh reward.

[OhCanada-Participant]

The guy was brought up in the CBA which is like charity event games compared to the NBA. I would be cautious picking him top 40 there’s so many question marks. How quick is he laterally, he is 7’2 but how is his stance can he get low to cut off angles, is he a pushover because his frame is so slight, how is his motor, how is his basketball IQ and drive/motor, even his communication skills and English. He truly is a mystery selection for me and I personally wouldn’t take the risk over guys like Cornelie or Yabusele who are coming up from proven systems that have produced capable players and have been correctly scouted. High risk meh reward.

[JoeWolf1]

I watched him a bit last summer, and he’s definitely very long, but not particularly athletic. Also very thin, and appeared to not have the best conditioning (this could have improved since then). Actually has decent touch on his jumper, and some good moves, but I feel he’s certainly a role player. I doubt he’ll ever be marquee player, but he’s still young and has excellent length.

I think he’s a 2nd round pick, he’d be a good guy for Boston to target. They have a ton of picks, and lack much shot blocking down low. Qi could be a nice player to draft and develop for them, even if he just ends up being a situational backup.

[JoeWolf1]

I watched him a bit last summer, and he’s definitely very long, but not particularly athletic. Also very thin, and appeared to not have the best conditioning (this could have improved since then). Actually has decent touch on his jumper, and some good moves, but I feel he’s certainly a role player. I doubt he’ll ever be marquee player, but he’s still young and has excellent length.

I think he’s a 2nd round pick, he’d be a good guy for Boston to target. They have a ton of picks, and lack much shot blocking down low. Qi could be a nice player to draft and develop for them, even if he just ends up being a situational backup.

[RollingWaveParticipant]

 Most of the CBA games can be found on youtube, as are the FIBA games, you can see with your eyes how competitive they are instead of rambling regurgitated stuff from 10 years ago, in these 10 years China has gone from a last resort destination to one of the first choice destiantion for ppl going over seas. because it pays serious money and they get more seriously featured.  heck when Yi was drafted Mabury was still in the NBA, he’s now a Chinese (honorary ) citizen lol. The Americans playing in the league are all at worst really great college players. and plenty were ex-NBA guys. But I digress

  Draft Express’ video is pretty solid on him, though perhaps overly critical of his weakness given the context of his playing time and overall production.  (i mean if your gonna fault him for his bad moment while playing major minuts and generally productive… but not a guys hwo’s playing like 12 minutes with a 15 PER?)

  If you want to yotube games, I suggest you look for the FIBA China vs Korea or China vs Philipines game from last year. the CBA context can be difficult mostly in that like the NBA, teams often don’t try very hard in the regular season , and you don’t know which team is trying on any given night.

  Zhou was at last year’s Nike Hoop Summit but injured his ankle early in camp, still played though most of it, but that might be why some people think he’s unathletic and/or awkward. 

 [spoiler]Anyway, I think Zhou might be overlooked and will probably end up being picked higher than a lot of people are suspecting right now (He’s pretty well scouted, as most teams now have permanent scouts in the Chinese league.) the combination of ridiculous length (his standing reach is basically half an inch shorter than Rudy Gobert.) surprising athlecism (he has a 32 inch no step vertical .and pretty impressive agility drills in general.)   and actual skills (his windup is slow, but once he gets it’s up his  release point is high and  good touch with pretty consistent mechanics.) and marketbility really makes it hard for him to seriously slip into the second round, (there maybe off course info that we are not aware of.)

 His shot blocking is something else, displaying an pretty absurd combination of length / skill / agility he vastly out blocked guys like Sam Dalembert who was top 10 in blocks for 10 years (it’s like his one saving grace.) in the NBA. in the films it’s impressive that he’s not just getting guys at the rim, a lot of it was well outside the paint . the thing that most impress me was a FIBA game against Iran where he went out and blocked a pull up 3 off a switch. and stayed balanced in the play and basically stole the ball as well.  he actively tries to keep his blocks in play, something few guys can do.

 The weight is the overreaching issue, even in the combine he was 218 (at 7’1 without shoes.)  and that’s already the highest he’s ever weigh in at least on record (though reportedly he was a bit heavier while training before the combine.)  on the other hand he’s already played pro ball for two year at mostly full starter minutes, and the CBA lacks many things, but not really big man with size.  as there are plenty of 260-280 guys rolling around, along with a 300 + guy  

   The Weight also seems to be a reason why he seems to tire out pretty badly sometimes, he was widely noted to really hitting a wall late last year and sucked horribly in the CBA semi finals.  anyway, he needs to get more fit is obvious. 

  In game he tries to play often more like a small forward than a true big on offense. you see a lot of driving / cutting to the rim and some jump shots (even some off the dribble once.)  his team usually hides him on less physical bigs and have Andray Blatche (or Yi JianLian on the national team.) match up against the more dangerous big,  he sometimes still loses rotations (but the CBA defense is pretty suspect in general, especially in the regular season, so it’s hard to tell how much of that is on him, I’d say that in FIBA he was crazy good and that stake is clearly higher.) but there are also alot of super impressive stops he makes . either in terms of following a small guy and chase down block, or rotating, or just strait up smothering a guy Tim Duncan style of not jumping but block you anyway.

  He has a little bit of a post game, though he doesn’t often get deep position even in the CBA,  but he’s got a decent touch on his hook and some razzel dazzel moves that sometimes work (and often don’t.) His passing I’m mixed on, sometimes it’s good, a lot of time it’s not. you usually can see what he’s trying to do but often he just doesn’t execute it well enough, though this is fairly common among prospects playing in international leagues, much like Dragan Bender’s passing game seems completely gone this year as well. I think he should at least be an ok passer.  

   He tried to put it on the floor a lot of a guy so tall, as noted he really plays more like a small forward on offense.  he probably should avoid doing that in the NBA at least for a few years. as his dribble is predictably loose (but still pretty impressive for a guy his size.)  but still it’s amazing to see him take it coast to coast quite a few times.  but yeah, that’s kinda like Thon Maker having a dribble (granted, Zhou’s doing it against significantly higher competition than Maker. )  but the combination of not the tighest dribble and inconsistent passing … i’m pretty sure no coach would seriously allow him to do that in the NBA for awhile. 

   The question is if you believe he can hold up with around 220-230 lb weight in the NBA, because with his frame I doubt he can really get significantly beyond 240.  and of course his age, which is going to be curse on all Chinese prospects until enough of them come through without problems. though I would say he certianly looks like his claimed age and heck his frame looks younger than that. and also one should note that he had a fairly ugly break up with one of the teams in China (he came up through the LiaoNing system, but ended up bolting for XinJiang when turning pro, something that &$#%#&@! off his old club to no end.) so if there’s real real dirt on him, there should be people in Liaoning that let it out by now (he’s been there since like 9 years old.) 

   As a player in the NBA (assuming he can make the translation obviously.)

  Offense: he’s a rather unique super tall dude that plays more like a Wing  (you know, Kevin Durant.) but he’s obviously nowhere near that sort of ability, he is NOT going to be a scoring super star , he wasn’t even one in China, unlike Yao and Yi .  BUT his variety of skill seem pretty well set up to be a perfectly useful role player on offense, one who can space the floor and move in space, my only concern is I don’t know how his passing will turn out, but he will be able to score some buckets, and if teams are just daring him to beat them, he probably can. He’s already had a lot of experience functioning as a 3rd option in China, so that translation should be just fine (many prospect ends up needing to go from the 1st option to 3rd in the NBA and just suck horribly at it.. see one Yi Jianlian)

  Teams really should play him offensively more like a small forward given where his game and body is at this point, if your asking him to fight for position alot inside and / or post up all the time, that’s not going to go down well, his advantage right now is clearly on the move and his jump shot, and luckily that actually fits with the current NBA trend.

  Though I should note he actually display surprising amount of skill on offense in many areas, I’ve seen him do the Dirk fadeaway in game and nail it, and he’s more amusingly quite loaded with NBA bullshit ref bating trickes like ripthrough moves or hanging out there an extra half second while jumping or even just strait up jumping into guys he pump faked into the air. There is the outside possibility he might have more scoring potential than i’m giving him credit for. 

  Defense: This is the big questions, he has a the ceiling of a game changing defender, he also has the significant possbility of being unplayable on defense. or the more median outcome of being pretty good but only in limited minutes.

  One should note Noel weigh less at the combine than him by like 12 lbs (but that was partially due to losing weight after injury, his playing weight was roughly the same as Zhou ‘s number at the combine.)  though Noel also had a whole year to develop his body before playing.  

  My general thought is that, if Shawn Bradley can play in the era of Shaq and wasn’t outright horrendous after not playing basketball for two years I don’t see why Zhou’s weight will really prevent him from playing in this current era of the NBA where post up are much more rare and easier to deal with coming off two strait years in a foreign pro league. yes he will suck at boxing out people but he’s also super likely to be able to just grab rebounds over people even out of position anyway. 

  He’s going to be a bust if you just strait up put him in at center and want him to play as a traditional center, but he might be surprisingly fit with where the NBA is going where positional ambiguity is king.  

  Like a lot of guys in this draft, it really depend on if the team draft him can competently develop him and play to his strength instead of forcing him to be something he’s not, 

  If I have to put money on it, I say he goes in the 20s, and can play almost right away, but in rather limited minutes for the first year or 2.  until his body really gets up and he can sustain heavier minutes against front line guys. him going in the 20s helps a lot since that means he’s more likely to end up on a good team that doesn’t need him right away. and those are often teams that actually know what they’re doing developing players. 

  He only worked out for 4 teams before returning to China to prepare for the Olympics . they are the Celtics / Memphis / Suns / Clippers. I suspect that’s the 4 most likely destination. the Suns look like a good idea with their medical staff and guys like Tyson Chandler who’s pretty ideal to bringing a skinny kid along. Celtics should be good too, Memphis and Clippers are a bit more tricky.[/spoiler]

 

 

[RollingWaveParticipant]

 Most of the CBA games can be found on youtube, as are the FIBA games, you can see with your eyes how competitive they are instead of rambling regurgitated stuff from 10 years ago, in these 10 years China has gone from a last resort destination to one of the first choice destiantion for ppl going over seas. because it pays serious money and they get more seriously featured.  heck when Yi was drafted Mabury was still in the NBA, he’s now a Chinese (honorary ) citizen lol. The Americans playing in the league are all at worst really great college players. and plenty were ex-NBA guys. But I digress

  Draft Express’ video is pretty solid on him, though perhaps overly critical of his weakness given the context of his playing time and overall production.  (i mean if your gonna fault him for his bad moment while playing major minuts and generally productive… but not a guys hwo’s playing like 12 minutes with a 15 PER?)

  If you want to yotube games, I suggest you look for the FIBA China vs Korea or China vs Philipines game from last year. the CBA context can be difficult mostly in that like the NBA, teams often don’t try very hard in the regular season , and you don’t know which team is trying on any given night.

  Zhou was at last year’s Nike Hoop Summit but injured his ankle early in camp, still played though most of it, but that might be why some people think he’s unathletic and/or awkward. 

 [spoiler]Anyway, I think Zhou might be overlooked and will probably end up being picked higher than a lot of people are suspecting right now (He’s pretty well scouted, as most teams now have permanent scouts in the Chinese league.) the combination of ridiculous length (his standing reach is basically half an inch shorter than Rudy Gobert.) surprising athlecism (he has a 32 inch no step vertical .and pretty impressive agility drills in general.)   and actual skills (his windup is slow, but once he gets it’s up his  release point is high and  good touch with pretty consistent mechanics.) and marketbility really makes it hard for him to seriously slip into the second round, (there maybe off course info that we are not aware of.)

 His shot blocking is something else, displaying an pretty absurd combination of length / skill / agility he vastly out blocked guys like Sam Dalembert who was top 10 in blocks for 10 years (it’s like his one saving grace.) in the NBA. in the films it’s impressive that he’s not just getting guys at the rim, a lot of it was well outside the paint . the thing that most impress me was a FIBA game against Iran where he went out and blocked a pull up 3 off a switch. and stayed balanced in the play and basically stole the ball as well.  he actively tries to keep his blocks in play, something few guys can do.

 The weight is the overreaching issue, even in the combine he was 218 (at 7’1 without shoes.)  and that’s already the highest he’s ever weigh in at least on record (though reportedly he was a bit heavier while training before the combine.)  on the other hand he’s already played pro ball for two year at mostly full starter minutes, and the CBA lacks many things, but not really big man with size.  as there are plenty of 260-280 guys rolling around, along with a 300 + guy  

   The Weight also seems to be a reason why he seems to tire out pretty badly sometimes, he was widely noted to really hitting a wall late last year and sucked horribly in the CBA semi finals.  anyway, he needs to get more fit is obvious. 

  In game he tries to play often more like a small forward than a true big on offense. you see a lot of driving / cutting to the rim and some jump shots (even some off the dribble once.)  his team usually hides him on less physical bigs and have Andray Blatche (or Yi JianLian on the national team.) match up against the more dangerous big,  he sometimes still loses rotations (but the CBA defense is pretty suspect in general, especially in the regular season, so it’s hard to tell how much of that is on him, I’d say that in FIBA he was crazy good and that stake is clearly higher.) but there are also alot of super impressive stops he makes . either in terms of following a small guy and chase down block, or rotating, or just strait up smothering a guy Tim Duncan style of not jumping but block you anyway.

  He has a little bit of a post game, though he doesn’t often get deep position even in the CBA,  but he’s got a decent touch on his hook and some razzel dazzel moves that sometimes work (and often don’t.) His passing I’m mixed on, sometimes it’s good, a lot of time it’s not. you usually can see what he’s trying to do but often he just doesn’t execute it well enough, though this is fairly common among prospects playing in international leagues, much like Dragan Bender’s passing game seems completely gone this year as well. I think he should at least be an ok passer.  

   He tried to put it on the floor a lot of a guy so tall, as noted he really plays more like a small forward on offense.  he probably should avoid doing that in the NBA at least for a few years. as his dribble is predictably loose (but still pretty impressive for a guy his size.)  but still it’s amazing to see him take it coast to coast quite a few times.  but yeah, that’s kinda like Thon Maker having a dribble (granted, Zhou’s doing it against significantly higher competition than Maker. )  but the combination of not the tighest dribble and inconsistent passing … i’m pretty sure no coach would seriously allow him to do that in the NBA for awhile. 

   The question is if you believe he can hold up with around 220-230 lb weight in the NBA, because with his frame I doubt he can really get significantly beyond 240.  and of course his age, which is going to be curse on all Chinese prospects until enough of them come through without problems. though I would say he certianly looks like his claimed age and heck his frame looks younger than that. and also one should note that he had a fairly ugly break up with one of the teams in China (he came up through the LiaoNing system, but ended up bolting for XinJiang when turning pro, something that &$#%#&@! off his old club to no end.) so if there’s real real dirt on him, there should be people in Liaoning that let it out by now (he’s been there since like 9 years old.) 

   As a player in the NBA (assuming he can make the translation obviously.)

  Offense: he’s a rather unique super tall dude that plays more like a Wing  (you know, Kevin Durant.) but he’s obviously nowhere near that sort of ability, he is NOT going to be a scoring super star , he wasn’t even one in China, unlike Yao and Yi .  BUT his variety of skill seem pretty well set up to be a perfectly useful role player on offense, one who can space the floor and move in space, my only concern is I don’t know how his passing will turn out, but he will be able to score some buckets, and if teams are just daring him to beat them, he probably can. He’s already had a lot of experience functioning as a 3rd option in China, so that translation should be just fine (many prospect ends up needing to go from the 1st option to 3rd in the NBA and just suck horribly at it.. see one Yi Jianlian)

  Teams really should play him offensively more like a small forward given where his game and body is at this point, if your asking him to fight for position alot inside and / or post up all the time, that’s not going to go down well, his advantage right now is clearly on the move and his jump shot, and luckily that actually fits with the current NBA trend.

  Though I should note he actually display surprising amount of skill on offense in many areas, I’ve seen him do the Dirk fadeaway in game and nail it, and he’s more amusingly quite loaded with NBA bullshit ref bating trickes like ripthrough moves or hanging out there an extra half second while jumping or even just strait up jumping into guys he pump faked into the air. There is the outside possibility he might have more scoring potential than i’m giving him credit for. 

  Defense: This is the big questions, he has a the ceiling of a game changing defender, he also has the significant possbility of being unplayable on defense. or the more median outcome of being pretty good but only in limited minutes.

  One should note Noel weigh less at the combine than him by like 12 lbs (but that was partially due to losing weight after injury, his playing weight was roughly the same as Zhou ‘s number at the combine.)  though Noel also had a whole year to develop his body before playing.  

  My general thought is that, if Shawn Bradley can play in the era of Shaq and wasn’t outright horrendous after not playing basketball for two years I don’t see why Zhou’s weight will really prevent him from playing in this current era of the NBA where post up are much more rare and easier to deal with coming off two strait years in a foreign pro league. yes he will suck at boxing out people but he’s also super likely to be able to just grab rebounds over people even out of position anyway. 

  He’s going to be a bust if you just strait up put him in at center and want him to play as a traditional center, but he might be surprisingly fit with where the NBA is going where positional ambiguity is king.  

  Like a lot of guys in this draft, it really depend on if the team draft him can competently develop him and play to his strength instead of forcing him to be something he’s not, 

  If I have to put money on it, I say he goes in the 20s, and can play almost right away, but in rather limited minutes for the first year or 2.  until his body really gets up and he can sustain heavier minutes against front line guys. him going in the 20s helps a lot since that means he’s more likely to end up on a good team that doesn’t need him right away. and those are often teams that actually know what they’re doing developing players. 

  He only worked out for 4 teams before returning to China to prepare for the Olympics . they are the Celtics / Memphis / Suns / Clippers. I suspect that’s the 4 most likely destination. the Suns look like a good idea with their medical staff and guys like Tyson Chandler who’s pretty ideal to bringing a skinny kid along. Celtics should be good too, Memphis and Clippers are a bit more tricky.[/spoiler]

 

 

[mamadouParticipant]

I think he’s rising with his workouts.

For me he’s a first rounder now, maybe as high as 19th, a team will take him in the late 1st round, for the player he could be, the marketing is too enticing.

He’s skinny but his skill set and crazy length is worth the gamble.

 

He won’t pass the Suns at 28, IMO.

19-28 range.

 

[mamadouParticipant]

I think he’s rising with his workouts.

For me he’s a first rounder now, maybe as high as 19th, a team will take him in the late 1st round, for the player he could be, the marketing is too enticing.

He’s skinny but his skill set and crazy length is worth the gamble.

 

He won’t pass the Suns at 28, IMO.

19-28 range.

 

[Author]

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