NBA Draft: Who is Stephen Zimmerman?

The Good

Stephen Zimmerman certainly has a solid foundation of skills to build off of.

He has very good size and good length. He has the ability to rotate well on defense and put himself in good scoring positions when he gets on the block. Zimmerman definitely does not look like a 19 year old in that regard. He has an advanced set of post moves. He will have to get the speed of the game down.

Zimmerman was solid throughout Summer League in showing off his array of offensive moves and defensive instincts. It is all still very raw. But it is all there too.

The Magic seemed to come away from Summer League impressed with what they had in Zimmerman.

“I like the temperature he plays at,” assistant coach Chad Forcier said. “He’s got a great edge to him. He has a lot of confidence. He has got a little bit of nastiness in there that will be fun to come out as he gets more experience.”

That was certainly present. Zimmerman could have easily gotten outmuscled and pushed around even in Summer League by bigger centers and he held his own. He did not let mistakes or bad performances affect him. He got over his butterflies and performed better as he got more comfortable.

There are a lot of good tools there.

Offensively, he has a nice base of post moves and really good footwork. As he refines his game, he should be able to generate space to score open shots.

Defensively, he showed good instincts. He often could get to the right spot in help and challenge shots at the rim. His defensive length allowed him to recover well even when he was late to his spot.

That is promising for a player so young and with the chance still to grow.

Next: The Bad