Flambo

Once upon a time, ZaZa Pachulia was an almost serviceable center in fantasy hoops, toiling away mostly for the now defunct Groove Train franchise.  For the two seasons prior to last year, Pachulia put up numbers in the 12p, 7.5r, 1s, ballpark, with his other contributions being too pedestrian to mention.

Then rookie Al Horford exploded onto the scene last year, vulturing most of Pachulia’s minutes.  Conventional wisdom last year (validated by last season’s results), was the same as conventional wisdom this year:  Horford is better than Pachulia- less soft, a better defender, and a good candidate to produce nightly double doubles for the next decade.  Why should we expect more from Pachulia this year?

Horford is still projected to be the Hawks’ starting center on opening night.  Coach Woodson has not indicated otherwise to the media.  So why should we think otherwise?  Because I say that the very lack of evidence suggesting that Pachulia might steal Horford’s job, confirms that this is in fact true.  The Hawks are wisely holding their cards close to their vest.  They have not breathed a word about Pachulia’s dominant play in practice this camp, because they intend to ambush the league, with ZaZa 2.0, once the regular season begins.

The fact that they have remained so hush about Pachulia’s new and improved game, suggests that ZaZa has been nothing short of spectacular in closed-door practices.  To supplant a double-double guy like Horford, his play must be pretty close to jaw-dropping.  Given what we know of Horford’s talents, the fact that Pachulia has unseated him (the Hawks absolute silence on the matter proves this), I’m predicting that ZaZa will put up numbers in the neighborhood of 16p, 12r, 1.5s, 2.2b, this coming season.  Because Pachulia’s re-emergence is such a closely-guarded secret by the Hawks organization, astute fantasy owners can probably wait until the 4th or 5th round, when they absolutely have to snatch him up if he’s still available.  For a taste of what’s to come, I have provided below, highlights of the “old” ZaZa:

Top 10 Plays of Zaza