Minnesota Timberwolves: Zach Collins pros and cons

Con: Limited minutes

Scouts almost have to treat Zach Collins like an international prospect. He never started a game, he only played 17.3 minutes per game, and he played in the West Coast Conference, which only fielded two teams in this year’s tournament.

Before that, Collins wasn’t even a full-time starter in high school until his senior year. At Bishop Gorman high school the young center backed up future NBA center Stephen Zimmerman and future Duke center Chase Jeter.

Becuase of this, it’s considerably hard to get a grasp on how good Collins is and can be. When looking at his per game numbers of 10 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks most teams probably aren’t blown away.

It’s also really hard to judge the statistics of big men in weaker conferences as there aren’t usually many other people of the same size and skill level.

The one part of his game that will most surely translate to the NBA is his outside shooting. Even then, he only attempted twenty-one three-pointers in college, a minuscule sample size.

Another fear is that even though his per-40 numbers look good, they would be hard to sustain over a longer period of playing time. Also, many of his minutes came against backup players.

For some strange reason, Collins decided to go the route of many other top prospects and not participate in many drills at the draft combine. So the best way for teams to measure Collins ability is to look at how he performed in the tournament where he faced his most challenging competition.

In six tournament games, Collins averaged nine points, 6.8 rebounds, and three blocks per game while playing 18 minutes per game. This translates to 20 points, 15.1 rebounds, and 6.7 blocks per game.

You can see that all of his per-40 numbers hold up against the stiffer competition, but it would still be a risk for the Wolves to take such an unknown commodity.