Jonathan Givony
After a relatively quiet week of practices and scrimmages, Wang Zhelin came out of nowhere to string together one of the best performances of anyone in the actual game, scoring 19 points, pulling down 8 rebounds and blocking two shots in just 22 minutes of action.
Listed as being born in 1994, but rumored to actually be around three years older than that, Zhelin measured 7-feet tall in Portland and a sturdy 251 pounds, with a 6-11 wingspan.
Zhelin has a very well developed lower body, with thick calves that allow him to hold his ground inside the paint on both ends of the floor. While he's not an incredible athlete, he's a fairly mobile big man, fluid and coordinated, and capable of playing above the rim. He's also not afraid of contact, doing a good job of asserting himself around the basket.
Offensively, Zhelin has a pretty nice skill-level for a player his size. He has range on his jumper out to about 18 feet, and some basic ball-handling ability as well. He can take advantage of his superior size and strength inside the paint to bully his way through weaker opponents, showing good touch and the ability to finish with either hand.
On the other hand, Zhelin's lack of experience showed throughout the week, as it's clear that he has yet to play against any real competition for much of his career. His feel for the game and particularly his passing ability are just average, as he forced the issue repeatedly in practices to the point that he became quite predictable in his moves. If unable to simply bulldoze his way through his matchup, Zhelin doesn't show much in the ways of footwork or countermoves, something he'll need to work on down the road.
Where Zhelin may struggle the most initially making the transition to the professional level is on the defensive end, where his fundamentals are extremely poor at the moment. He doesn't show great awareness and has a difficult time moving his feet laterally both in man to man and team settings, making him very foul prone.
Still yet to see any playing time at the senior level, Zhelin is obviously still in a fairly preliminary stage of his development, despite his outstanding showing at the Hoop Summit game. He's obviously come a long ways since the first time we saw him two years ago in Hamburg at the U-17 World Championship, and then again last year at the Nike International Junior Tournament in Barcelona. Zhelin has plenty of tools to work with as well as an intriguing skill-set and should get plenty of opportunity to continue to hone his all-around game, as he's already been invited to the Chinese national team squad which is currently preparing for the London Olympics this summer.
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