Warriors' Summer League review: Festus Ezeli

Festus Ezeli
- 611255lbs Center
- 2011-12Stats: 10.1 PPG (53.9 FG), 5.9 RPG, 2.0 BPG (junior season at Vanderbilt)
- 2012Summer League Stats: 4.4 PPG (36.4 FG), 4.0 RPG, 2.0 BPG

FestusEzeli actually took a step back statistically between his sophomore and juniorseasons at Vanderbilt. He averaged 13.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.6 bpg in 23.5 mpg inhis second campaign as a Commodore. In his final season in Nashville, his numbers dropped across theboard to 10.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 2.0 bpg in a fairly consistent 23.2 mpg. Yet theWarriors took him with the final 1st round pick because he is big, active, andraw.
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In fivesummer league games, Ezeli showed he was all three of those things, but notmuch else (yet). Ezeli averaged fewer points and rebounds than the 2011-12 Japan leagueMVP, Justin Burrell. Luckily for the Vandy product, the three inches he has onBurrell cannot be taught, whereas Ezeli can hope to pick up some of Burrellspolish.The 611center was a career 56.2 FG shooter in college, but only converted 36.4 ofhis attempts from the field in summer league. In college, his main source ofoffense was finishing around the rim on putbacks or drive and dishopportunities. So it makes sense that his game would suffer some in the moreme-orientated, less structured summer league environment.Thatexcuse does not hold for rebounding though. The big man collected four boards agame (5th on his own team). Extrapolating that out, he averaged 7.9 board per40 minutes which is 2.6 rebounds under the league average for NBA centers lastseason, according to Hoopdata.com. For the time he was on the floor, hisdefensive rebound rate was 15.9 and his total rebound rate was 11.0, whichare both drops from his 17.4 DRB and 15.3 TRB as a junior at Vandy.One bigpositive out of Ezeli was his defense. He averaged two blocks a game andconsistently challenged shots around the rim. He fulfilled the big and activepart of his billing along with the raw.Ezelinever played more than 23.5 minutes per game in college and barely cracked 20in summer league, so it is reasonable to expect that he will have a limitedrole on the 2012-13 Warriors roster as he continues to develop his offensive game.He is active, big and has six fouls, though, so dont be surprised to see himget some floor time this season.