Beat writers/scouts at camp know what they're looking at since they've been doing it for years....We're a week into camp, don't read too much into what Zimmers said, what did you expect Zimmer to say, Mazi sucks, why is he even on the team? Ofcourse he's trying to stay positive about the player..
Disagree.
Beat writers... aren't scouts. They're guys like us who write for a living. No one's knocking on their door trying to lure them away from journalism and into the scouting domain. We put these guys up on pedestals sometimes for no actual reason other than that they're familiar to us, and we can become inclined to think they're smart and friendly, and we like them. And they may be smart and friendly, but that doesn't make them experts.
Scouts in the media are a full step above the others, though guys like Broaddus will try to talk with them as-if they're equals because... well, that's his job now. Who's the fool who's going to be constantly pulling the card, "You've never been a scout" when talking with radio talkers... all of us like to be liked... so Broaddus capitulates with reckless abandon, of course.
But even Broaddus is just one scout. Even if he's the most insightful and wise scout, teams don't employ just one scout. They employ a corps of scouts because it's just understood, you need multiple voices in a room when the decisions require so much subjective intel in addition to the objective intel.
And. Broaddus is not the most insightful and wise scout. He'll tell you that, to his credit. And he's apparently right, because... again... no one appears to be banging on his door begging him to get back into anyone's front office, either.
Zimmer? I get the skepticism, but when you listen to his words and his tone of voice, I get nothing but sincerity. Zimmer doesn't resist saying what Mazi won't be able to do. He acknowledges that. But then he goes on to speak to what he's seeing. I just don't take him as head faking, me.
I think some fans... not necessarily anyone contributing to this thread, because I really haven't studied any of the names in the posts... are just a little disappointed to hear anything that isn't a slam against Mazi, but I hope I'm wrong about that.
My take is that I'm most interested in former coaches' takes... then either former players or scouts are about the same, imo... and then there's the rest of us, some employed in media, some just posting in social media.
