WALTHAM, Mass. — Talk to any member of the Boston Celtics, and you’ll get the same scouting report on new guy Tyler Zeller.
“He’s a 7-footer that can run,” forward Brandon Bass said.
“The coolest thing about Zeller is he runs really well,” recently signed swingman Evan Turner added.
Even rookie Marcus Smart: “That’s always good that your big can get down the floor that fast.”
So, yeah, the strength of the 24-year-old’s game is no mystery.
Zeller’s ability to run the floor and create offense in transition is the calling card for the 7-foot, 253-pound center, who is playing under his third coach in as many seasons after being traded to the the Celtics in July.
Interestingly enough, Zeller says he hated running as a kid, only learning to take advantage of his fleet feet after a seventh-grade AAU coach drilled it into him.
“He used to make us run all the time in practice, and I hated it,” Zeller said Thursday during the Celtics’ pre-practice workout. “Then when I got off his team, I started running a lot. He was like, ‘Where was this when I was coaching you?’ So, that’s kind of where it came from.
“It is something that makes me unique,” he added. “They always say, ‘play to your strengths,’ and that’s something I have to continue to do and continue to get better at, and just push the pace as much as possible.”
That’s something Celtics coach Brad Stevens likes to hear, as his new system centers around upping the tempo and intensity at both ends of the floor. Zeller has a chance to find a niche in Stevens’ offense given his usual positioning — he does most of his work down low, while some of the Celtics’ other bigs have more dangerous perimeter games — and the fact that he has the size to defend opposing centers.
Zeller still has a lot of improving to do, as evidenced by his statistics though two NBA seasons. He started just nine of the 70 games he played last season — down from 55 starts as a rookie — and saw his playing time drop by more than 11 minutes per game while playing on a Cleveland Cavaliers team that missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.
But Stevens, who recruited Zeller’s two brothers while he was head coach at Butler, sees tools he can work with — on top of the fact that, yes, he can run.
“He’s strong, he’s physical, he’s not afraid of contact and he moves pretty well,” Stevens said. “One of the things that we’re working on with him that we work on with all bigs is playing lower, longer. Playing in a stance, being able to — bigs have a tendency to stand up. … We’re working with all of them on that.”
