VIA YOUTUBE, INTERWEBS — About a week after Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green earned gold at the #Rio2016 Olympics, new Golden State Warriors center Zaza Pachulia embarked on a three-week tournament, spending the first seventeen days of September playing for his Georgian National Team in the FIBA Europe Qualifiers round-robin tournament.
Pachulia helped his team to an impressive 5-1 record, playing about once per three days in a home-and-home round-robin format, with blowout wins against Albania and Slovakia, and two grueling matchups against Montenegro.
Georgia’s performance earned them qualification as one of the remaining eleven spots (the first four teams are from the host countries and the others are the top nine teams from EuroBasket 2015) in the 24-team EuroBasket 2017 tournament to be held in four countries next September.
EuroBasket 2017 will then feed the top European teams into the 32-team 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup which, incidentally, USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team still has to qualify for, as Olympic championships are no longer considered automatic berths anymore, under the new FIBA format that was designed to not coincide with FIFA’s World Cup. In fact, the qualifying home-and-home round-robins are to be done in the months of September, November, and June. There has been no resolution as to what kind of team the United States, or other powerhouse national teams for that matter, can field as the NBA’s training camp, preseason, and regular season schedule runs from late September through April.
Anyways, back to Pachulia, he averaged a respectable 15.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists (although FIBA counts assists on made free throws) against marginal competition throughout the tournament, but did post games of 22 points on 7-for-10 on field goals, and 9 rebounds in a two-point loss at home and — to close out the series — 21 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and a team-leading plus-minus of +19 in a revenge win on the home soil of the Montenegran National Team, head-to-head versus fellow NBA Euro-center 7’0” Sasha Vucevic of the Orlando Magic.
In the loss, Pachulia fouled out late and Vucevic helped Montenegro overpower Georgia on a pivotal putback late in the game.
The full-game video is available on FIBA’s YouTube channel…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9jCaiUVaxc&w=560&h=315]…and the tape reveals the following about Pachulia:
1. He’s a serviceable NBA center
Comparisons with former Warriors center Andrew Bogut will inevitably come up, so while we prefer not to play the ranking game, here are some immediately noticeable traits.
First off, Pachulia runs the floor very well, very smoothly for a 6’11” body. He appears to be at an ideal weight and mass than most seven-footers or near-seven-footers, excluding the chiseled ones like prime Amare Stoudamire or Festus Ezeli.
Pachulia is, therefore, less a tiger and more a bear, but certainly far from a giraffe.
Let’s put it this way: while we’ll probably never know the result, picking Pachulia to not lose a foot race with Bogut would be a relatively safe bet to make.
2. He is unathletic, but relentless
Pachulia’s wingspan is only as long as his height (6’11”, whereas Bogut’s wingspan is 7’3” at a list height of 7’0”) and in the loss to Montenegro, Vucevic had an easy time lofting three-pointers over Pachulia. His close-out isn’t particularly effective and the Georgia head coach Ilias Zurous even took Pachulia out for the lankier and way-less-talented Georgi Shermadini (7’1”) during a key stretch late in the game for the longer reach.
With Pachulia, there’s no flying through the lane, one-hand-with-other-hand-behind-head dunks, no double-clutch scissor kick layups.
Pachulia is a Ford F-150, not a Range Rover. He gets dirty and gets the job done. And per Jason Quick, CSN Northwest beatwriter for the Portland Trail Blazers, when Pachulia hit the free agent market and the Blazers were mentioned as a possible destination, the Georgian center was noted as having missed only fourteen games in the past two seasons due to injury.
So what do non-athletes resort to when hops can free you up vertically for a jumper? Pachulia’s shot-put runners are not bad. Firstly, he’s confident enough to take them and secondly, the little shovel shot is always there just in case he gets rammed and there’s an opportunity for a three-point play on the whistle.
3. He hustles, is not passive, and has a few tricks up the sleeve
Pachulia seems to go after every loose ball within a five-foot radius. He’s also relentless on offense, modifying steps and up-fakes as he goes. He’s got quite a repertoire of moves.
He also can pass pretty well while in the post, to cutters. On one occasion in the Montenegro loss, he made a behind-the-back pass while driving, but the recipient wasn’t ready for it and perhaps a little too close to Pachulia.
And he’s got a mean streak. This may be the one thing he has in common with Bogut. Most of you know about his tussle with new Warriors backup power forward David West, which thankfully did not escalate into something more:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJlE7PuAw4s&w=560&h=315]But did you know Pachulia also once got into it with Chandler Parsons, his teammate with the Dallas Mavericks, after a made basket?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jay_RChMFUU&w=560&h=315]Against Montenegro, Pachulia never backed down from anything and I thought I saw him mouthing, “That wasn’t a flagrant foul,” on a particularly hard foul he administered against Montenegro’s power forward, from behind, at the rim. A mini-skirmish featuring a little yelling back and forth was quickly quelled as a result of that.
4. He makes free throws
You’ll swear he’s shooting his free throws two-handed, but it’s just sort of an optical illusion. That’s his push-shot at work again.
So, the throws are not exactly pretty, but then then again, welcome to a new era of Warriors 5-spot free throw percentages. When was the last time the Warriors had a good free-throw shooting center?
Pachulia has shot 74.6% from the charity stripe during his 13-year NBA career and was 35-for-38 (92.1%), an average of more than six trips to the line per game, at the FIBA Qualifiers this month.
5. He’s a dark horse for fan favorite
Pachulia has a nose for the ball and a knack for drawing contact. And when it’s at a critical time of the game, he’ll let the fans feed into it.
Against Montenegro he 8,000 of Georgians ready to burst out of their seats to cheer him, and that should be no different than at #Roaracle (aka Oracle Arena).
He even got the crowd going during a timeout in the middle of Georgia’s comeback attempt. [CLICK ON THE ARROWS OF THE PHOTO GALLERY AT THE TOP OF THIS POST]
Georgia had pulled to within one point with 4:48 remaining in the fourth quarter on a runner through the paint by small forward Viktor Sanikidze, Montenegro head coach Bogdan Tanjevic called timeout to stop the 6-0 run and, while all the Georgians gathered around Zorous at their bench, Pachulia took a detour.
He strolled over to the opposite sideline, raised his arms, and beckoned his fellow Georgians at the Sports Palace in the capital Tbilisi, which has a population of just over one million.
***
In January of last season, a supportive Dallas Mavericks fan made a video which captures the essence of Pachulia:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ4Pe_ESG8E&w=560&h=315]Add to that a glowing report, particularly on the defensive end, from Mike Prada of SB Nation last February, and noticeable upticks in free throws per game (2.2 to 3.4) and rebounds per game (6.8 to 9.4) from two seasons ago to last year, and DubNation should be at ease with Pachulia as a replacement for Bogut.
With a “Super Six” of Finals-tested veterans in Stephen Curry, Thompson, Durant, Green, Andre Iguodala, and Shaun Livingston absorbing all the pressure of the upcoming season, Pachulia should do just fine donning the blue-the-gold.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @fiba)
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