With the Tweet from Draft Express that Bayern Munich’s Paul Zipser will enter the 2015 NBA Draft, here are my notes I have collected about the 21-year-old shooting guard.
Paul Zipser, 6-8 German 1994-born forward from Bayern Munich, is entering the draft. Athletic SF who can shoot and defend. Under the radar.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) April 21, 2015
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Zipper definitely has been through a lot in the past couple of years. In 2012 he was heavily recruited by the top teams in Germany – Bamberg and Bayern among others. But he decided to stay at second division Heidelberg and hope to raise his stock. But he suffered a foot injury very early in the season and was not playing.
Still, Bayern Munich came in in January 2013 and swooped him up on a four-year deal until the end of the 2016-17 season. I think it was the perfect time to get him because he hadn’t played and nobody really knew what was wrong with him, besides the fact that his pricetag was lower than ever. As you could imagine, Bayern have great medical staff and they worked together with Adidas – again, the luxury of being Bayern Munich – to design a special shoe for Zipser, who apparently has an extra bone in his foot and that was the main problem. Once all that was cleared up, he started to really pick up his game.
Last season he worked hard in practice with the professional team – Bayern’s second team is lacking behind in the fourth division in Germany, which would be a joke for Zipser (this is the result of the quick rise of the Bayern program – they haven’t been able to get their second team up to a good level yet which they need to give some younger players better competition). He eventually got some good minutes later in the season and really showed his star potential – check for example Bayern’s last two EL Top 16 games against Maccabi and Lokomotiv Kuban – here the highlights.
And then in the first round of the German playoffs last season (May 2014), Zipser suffered a serious knee injury and didn’t return until mid-November this year.
This season started on November 23 for Zipser against Crailsheim Merlins as he scored 10 points and had two rebounds. He has averaged 5.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 20 games.
Some of his other highlights were collecting 13 points and eight rebounds against Braunschweig; picking up nine points, four assists and three blocks against Hagen, and hitting all his of his three-point attempts for 20 points against Tübingen.
Zipser also played in three Euroleague games, averaging 3.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 12:38 minutes per game.
In five Eurocup games, he averaged 4.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, 0.8 assist and 0.8 steals, including an impressive second game against Valencia in the Round of 16 with 13 points, nine rebounds, four steals and one block.
As far as his game goes, he’s really got a nice skill set. Good body. Excellent jumping ability (though haven’t seen him enough live this year to see if that’s all the way back since the knee injury). Can drive by people. Can shoot from the outside. Hard worker from what I’m able to see. Seems to work hard on defense. His jumping ability helps him get blocks, for which he seems to have a good sense. He’s an impact player at both ends – will make a block at one end and then drive and dunk or hit a tough layup at the other end. Isn’t afraid to work on the offensive and defense glass.
He has the unfortunate distinction on being on the German team that got relegated to Division B at the U18 European Championship in 2012 – the same year as the 2012 Albert Schweitzer Tournament. Even though the 1994 generation is not Germany’s best, there was a lot of talent on that team – Zipser, Marin, Müller (all 1994s) as well as Taylor, Akpinar, Schilling, Ugrai, Mayr (all 1995s). Germany were a bit unlucky to be in a group with Spain and Serbia but they ended up losing by three points to Ukraine to go into the relegation pool – which was the first summer where three teams went down instead of just two. And Germany were unlucky to have France in the relegation pool as well.
Don’t know about his education – left his home town Heidelberg to move to Munich. Don’t know about any studies at all. Has at least an older sister, don’t know about the parents what they do. But seems like he came up in at least “comfortable” surroundings. Was found early for the German NT system (played at U16 Euros in 2010 and then U18s in 2011 and 2012). That might also have to do that the renown Albert Schweitzer Tournament takes place every two years in Mannheim, which is right next door to Heidelberg.
Here are a couple of links to pieces I have written about him over the years.
http://www.fibaeurope.com/coid_SlBFh0u8HiYJfGTBlO5kM0.articleMode_on.html
https://www.heinnews.com/basketball/bbl/one-on-one-german-talent-paul-zipser-nearing-decision/