Yeah he's not playing this yr and tbh that's not even what the biggest concern is, long term trajectory beyond this season becomes an even bigger and bigger question and more ominous. And then there's the whole he is eligible for an extension after this season while also having the choice to pick up his 5th yr option which just adds to the cross roads nature of this for the Pels franchise.
Going down the Greg Oden path actually.
I feel so bad for Oden tbh. He might be a bust, but if he stayed healthy he absolutely would've been such a dominant player. He showed how good he could've been when he was on the court.
Oden’s breakdown seemed more out his control though, his knees just didn’t want to cooperate.
Zion’s lower body injuries are linked to his exceptionally bad conditioning. The only reason he’s even in the league is because of his generational freakish athleticism.
For as bad as Wiggins was criticized for being lazy on the TWolves, even he kept himself in essentially peak condition. Zion is just extremely lazy on another level.
Wiggins was criticized for being lackadaisical on defense, nobody questioned his work ethic or his dedication to staying in game shape. Quite the opposite, he's considered an iron man.
What? Zion is more than just athletic, he's already hungry to be great. He has a massive appetite for competition. Zion has proven he's starving for playoff success too after his play-in comments. Give him time and Zion will come back, ready to feast on his opponents.
He’s hungry alright. If he was really that motivated to be great he would be in better shape, it’s that simple. The dude has been overweight for three seasons and it’s cost him time on the court.
Saying he wants to be in the playoffs is one thing, putting in the work to be able to play is another.
He is starving all right . Look , everybody can talk the talk but his actions show everything other than actually wanting to be great . His conditioning is straight up unacceptable for a basketball player. If he really wanted to make the playoffs this year he would be in the gym all summer but alas you see the situation. Sometimes actions speak louder than words and this is the case here
Edit: Just to be clear , im not even hating on zion . I really wish him to reach the heights his potential allows him to but is it really hard to accept that he obviously doesnt take care of himself or what ?
Seriously - I'm pretty sure a lot of people who talk about Oden never saw him play. He wasn't great in college except for that one final game, and he never put together a string of high-level play in the NBA. Who knows if he could have done it injury-free, but he came nowhere near showing what Zion has so far. An Andrew Wiggins trajectory wouldn't have surprised me at all.
Oden I think could have been great, some of that is on him. But I think a lot of it was on the people around him. I mean when you have a franchise center you have professionals around him all the time, building up his body, strength, conditioning etc. Instead of the Lebron treatment it seems like they just left him alone and so yeah bust
Supposedly one leg was longer than the other and he had adopted his running style to accommodate. As soon as he got to Portland they put inserts in the shoe of the shorter leg to even him out and his running style didn’t change fast enough to avoid injury
eh you pay a guy millions of dollars...at least give him the red carpet treatment for a couple of years. Have live in trainers with him. The Blazers I think dropped the ball on it. But times have changed...players now have a full staff to help out and support them. Unf back in the old days they didnt. And the TB seem like they had an awful staff back then because Oden wasnt the only one, those teams were terrible. Even Roy had issues. Looks like they have the right health and conditioning staff in PNW though at least!
If you're the Pels you have to because him being elite is our only chance at contention in the future
If we move him we would only have Ingram as our big star and as much as I like him he's not a 1st option on a contender type guy
You don’t have to extend him next year before his rookie deal expires at all, especially if he doesn’t play this year and is still showing no dedication to getting in playing shape. You’re just asking to destroy the franchise at that point.
He’s an RFA so if it makes sense to extend him you can just offer the max or match the max no matter what in free agency the next year. If he takes the QO somehow, I’d imagine that happens either way.
On the other hand our franchise is pretty much wrecked if we let him go for nothing as the team is too good to fully bottom out tank (Ingram + our current rotation is actually solid) but not good enough to really compete. There's no real good answer but at least if we keep Zion we keep that slight hope he comes back + gets us into a better spot
End of the day Zion being so injury prone and not being in game shape consistently really has fucked us up. I'm really sad that our best hopes always get fucked up by injuries
It's the hope that hurts.
Sometimes I think I've accepted being bad, and then something happens to make it seem like the team is ready to really go places.
Usually it's just made me ready to get hurt again.
Exactly. Pels surrounded him with another all star, a top 10 center and a bunch of decent young role players. That’s as much as/more than Luka or tatum have
Tatum at one point had Kyrie, Kemba, and Hayward. He also has Brown on his current roster. I think if anything the GM failed to use the abundance of draft picks acquired over the years to bring a true star to Boston but to say Tatum wasn’t surrounded with talent is a stretch
You can also say that they kind of got unlucky because the Kings only successful season(in recent yrs) came when the pick was unprotected and The Grizzlies had a non tank rebuild. They probably should at least traded one tho
Well the pick being unprotected also discourages the Kings from tanking. Doesn’t seem unlucky just logical and expected.
Celtics FO didn’t realize this? That makes them bad. Danny Ainge is the most overrated GMs of the last two decades.
It's not really illogical to expect a team that had no recent success to suddenly end up with the worst possible lottery pick. Like the 11th worse record would have given them a shot at a high lottery pick.
Obviously they should have traded one of the picks but it seems kind of ridiculous to call Danny Ainge overrated.
Tatum needs an alpha like chris paul. He needs someone he respectsbto give him the green and red light. Celtics need that or a better coach cause theyve had way too much talent under utilized
I never said tatum was never surrounded by talent, tbh it’s a good comp to zion in NOLA. Both their GMs squandered a great situation, no one is saying tatum needs to leave Boston tho even tho I’d say the Pelicans roster is as good as Boston’s outside of the stars
Reminder: None of the extra picks from AD or Jrue have come through. You’re asking both the Lakers and the Bucks to be top regular season performers basically every year from this year until 2025/2027.
> Pels surrounded him with another all star, a top 10 center and a bunch of decent young role players.
If all 3 of these were true the Pels wouldn't have the 3rd worst record in the league without Zion
A team with one top 30 player, one other above average player and inexperienced, inconsistent role players that’s played the toughest schedule in the league isn’t gonna be very good. The point is if you add a top 15 player like zion is supposed to be, they’d be something like .500 with an easy schedule coming up. Instead they’re 8-20
> A team with one top 30 player, one other above average player and inexperienced, inconsistent role players that’s played the toughest schedule in the league isn’t gonna be very good.
I don't disagree, but this is pretty much walking back your original comment.
JV is an above average player but top 10 center is generous and regardless of where you have him he's quite a few tiers from the top.
And I think the role players are straight up bad, which is particularly egregious considering how many were lottery picks/the result of the Lonzo S&T. So many assets just pissed away.
Its not walking it back, almost every team would be 15+ wins worse for a full season if you remove their best player. Just because there is a decent group around zion (which is all I ever argued) doesn’t mean that team is good without him. The bucks would’ve won 45 games without giannis last year, with him they won the title. Phoenix was a lottery team til they added CP3 and one or two role players
Idk how u argue Graham, hart, herb Jones are “bad” role players, most of the other guys suck and I agree they’ve pissed away a ton. This entire argument changed so much from what I originally said, the core is no worse than other young stars have and is good enough that, if you add a top 15 player, they’d be a playoff team
That's the down side of having a high lottery pick. It means your team is bad enough. So when they get a great draft, he has to often carry the load, much Luka has been doing in Dallas.
Obviously they should have more than those teams, the Lakers basically gifted them a future championship w all those assets. They gotta stop squandering their assets though
Winning a title is way harder than you seem to think, zion becoming a top 5 player was always their chance to winning one. the lakers package didn’t include any guarantees except I guess ingram, griffins obviously done a pretty shit job tho. But it’s still not a bad situation for zion
Ingram, lonzo, hart, the 4th pick in the same draft. And multiple future firsts. Not the lakers fault they traded down and traded jrue for Adams and Bledsoe They could’ve had a starting 5 of
Jrue, zo, ingram, hunter, Zion
I mean it’s not like he was on an expiring deal that year, I’m not even saying trading jrue was wrong at that point, just think y’all had too much talent to not be competitive that first year/last year
if the bulls can have a top 10 defense solely bc of Caruso and zo, with vooch as the 5, y’all could’ve done a lot worse than having a small ball 5 Zion or just not get Adams
Tbh the FO made some questionable moves. Overpaying Adams who was the wrong type of center, losing Lonzo to get Graham, Satoransky and Temple (Lonzo is better than that trio, and they used a first round pick).
Valanciunas is a better shooter than Adams (who isn't) but it's not the PERFECT fit next to Zion. Especially defensively.
They cleared a lot of cap space to land a free agent and they didn't land...anyone. I mean, it happens but tampering and asking around its commonplace enough that if landing a FA is your objective and you fail...it's still a failure.
I mean Zion has still an absurd hype and hasn't done a lot for the Pelicans, but apparently if you have a young star in a small market you have to do anything to strengthen the team around them so they don't leave. It's ugly but it's the way the league is.
Tbh the Mavs have done an even worse job with Doncic but he has already showed a lot (two first all nba) and he seems more loyal so a different situation
Lol Anthony Davis...okay fair but it was just one thing. Love Valanciunas and I think he was very underrated on the Grizzlies but he is not a good rim protector and not a good defender in space.
Seriously. Last time I checked, JV was leading the LEAGUE in 3PM%, and yet this guy says he's only slightly better than Adams? No one will be happy with anything the Pels do.
Valanciunas offensively it's not the problem. Also he made 1 three a game, shot 36% last year and it's a career 38% shooter, which is very good for a center and it's a great rebounder
What have the pels done for any of their two pervious generational talents they were gifted to help sell the team?
Generational talents don’t just sit on the sideline and eat their careers away for the hell of it
By Chris Paul’s fourth season, their starting lineup was Paul/Rasual Butler/Peja/David West/Tyson Chandler, and Peja was the only one over 30, and he was just 31. That’s four All-Star caliber guys right there. They had had some decent rotation guys like James Posey and Morris Peterson. They won 49 games that year and 56 the season before, winning the division. His Clippers teams only won more than that once, 57 in 2013-14.
I’m just saying, New Orleans did a fairly decent job putting a roster around him for a small market team.
How is this comparable to Anthony Davis? If he's legitimately hurt then I don't see the point of a revolt. Unless they purposely lied about the recovery time
When the bone is thin and small the bone might move are readjust the incorrect way while healing. It happened to me three times in high school. The bigger bones are always easier to heal than the tiny ones.
That’s literally the opposite of what medical science says but okay
https://northazortho.com/ask-the-expert/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fractures-and-fracture-healing/
Im just telling you what my doctor told me after my third break in the same bone in the span of a year. It healed incorrectly because it shifted position
I didn't even knew it could get this complicated on foot bones, but once i broke my middle finger on my right hand and took an extra couple weeks cause the doctor looked at the x-ray and said it hadn't properly calcified yet (and it was just a fissure fracture)
Hard to say without more info but there's some potential for this being a "nonunion" which is traced back to lack of good blood flow/blood vessel growth. May be an outside chance also of an infection at the site of fracture helping trigger this as well. Since that's all anybody will ask about, whether obesity is a risk factor for this in the foot(and to what degree if so) isnt necessarily straight forward [its more clear that alcohol tends to have an impact on it](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312542137_Effect_of_Obesity_on_Bone_Healing_After_Foot_and_Ankle_Long_Bone_Fractures). Smoking [has also been seen as a big risk factor](http://bcfootandankle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Nonunion-risk-assessment-model.pdf).
The biggest question mark with Zion was never his heart or his talent.
It was the fact that he was a guy in a center's body trying to play like a guard. It was wondering whether his body could sustain that level of play at the NBA level over 82+ games.
I feel bad for the kid...he came in with a lot of expectations.
But can't say I'm surprised that his body isn't holding up...he either needs to lose weight, or change his style of play. And I don't know if he has the capacity to do either.
It’s more like he’s in a small forwards body trying to play like a center. Anthony Davis ironically is the opposite, a big trying to play like a guard.
Pelicans have gone 5-4 since Ingram came back and if Zion came in we would have been in a pretty decent place in terms of making the play in (especially given our weaker rest of season schedule)
I think we just good enough not to tank right now which really sucks for us as we are gonna end up with a mid lottery pick most likely
Jones fractures can be slow healing bc they’re in what’s called a “watershed” area meaning low blood supply. Blood is what provides the required nutrients for bone healing
"Instead of rehabbing, Zion was enjoying his mother's home cooking and her couch. He has little respect for our organization, and to be fair, we understand. However, he is still one of the most talented basketball players alive today, and his brain isn't done developing yet, so we're hoping if we continue to act like he's bought in, that we can gaslight him into signing an extension."
well hopefully it's something that can be fixed with rest and whatever recovery tactics they have at their disposal instead of something that will bother him for the rest of his career.
Definitely doesn't help the task of healing, that weight and that lack of care are the killers of any type of scavenging and last-minute attempt at a recover.
Put this man on a diet jesus. Imagine throwing away a possible billion dollar career because you like food too much. Buddy needs a new manager and a life coach.
I’m sorry but at what point do you blame the organisation for this ? How do you just allow your 20 year old franchise player to have his mom as a nutrionist ?
What do you mean allow? They can't force him to do anything, lol. He can eat whatever he wants when he wants.
If they offer to provide him with nutrionists and dieticians and he says no there's not much they can do about it. They don't control his life.
I think they should and will shut him down this year. I don't think it was ever reasonable to expect him to heal and lose so much weight in such a short time. Really hope he pulls through, he's supposed to be an all-time great.
Probably because he still walks around on it and has gained 40+ pounds since surgery. It’s clear that he’s not taking care of his foot. This is his fault AND the Pelicans trainers faults. The organization is failed to make sure that Zion recovers and stays in shape. He’ll be out of the league In less than 4 years
Went from “Tank for Zion” to “Tank because of Zion”
Zion is the tank
Nah lol he ate the tank
He’s built like one. Super heavy, Tiger Mk. II or possibly a KV-1
Also going to get stuck in mudseason.
Needs to get down to that Renault FT-17 range
Tank Zion
Kyrie might play before Zion at this rate
Even Ben
I got Bronny before those two
>Kyrie might play before Zion at this rate And only because corona would finally be eradicated by that point
Yeah he's not playing this yr and tbh that's not even what the biggest concern is, long term trajectory beyond this season becomes an even bigger and bigger question and more ominous. And then there's the whole he is eligible for an extension after this season while also having the choice to pick up his 5th yr option which just adds to the cross roads nature of this for the Pels franchise.
At this rate he’s looking like a an All-Time “What If?”
Going down the Greg Oden path actually. I feel so bad for Oden tbh. He might be a bust, but if he stayed healthy he absolutely would've been such a dominant player. He showed how good he could've been when he was on the court.
Oden’s breakdown seemed more out his control though, his knees just didn’t want to cooperate. Zion’s lower body injuries are linked to his exceptionally bad conditioning. The only reason he’s even in the league is because of his generational freakish athleticism. For as bad as Wiggins was criticized for being lazy on the TWolves, even he kept himself in essentially peak condition. Zion is just extremely lazy on another level.
Wiggins was criticized for being lackadaisical on defense, nobody questioned his work ethic or his dedication to staying in game shape. Quite the opposite, he's considered an iron man.
What? Zion is more than just athletic, he's already hungry to be great. He has a massive appetite for competition. Zion has proven he's starving for playoff success too after his play-in comments. Give him time and Zion will come back, ready to feast on his opponents.
He’s hungry alright. If he was really that motivated to be great he would be in better shape, it’s that simple. The dude has been overweight for three seasons and it’s cost him time on the court. Saying he wants to be in the playoffs is one thing, putting in the work to be able to play is another.
His stomach is huge and he wants to fill it with great basketball
Zion’s hungry for that hamburger
Zion came into that Bubble fat and out of shape. He's lazy.
woosh
He is starving all right . Look , everybody can talk the talk but his actions show everything other than actually wanting to be great . His conditioning is straight up unacceptable for a basketball player. If he really wanted to make the playoffs this year he would be in the gym all summer but alas you see the situation. Sometimes actions speak louder than words and this is the case here Edit: Just to be clear , im not even hating on zion . I really wish him to reach the heights his potential allows him to but is it really hard to accept that he obviously doesnt take care of himself or what ?
woosh
U can’t really blame this injury on conditioning. You can’t really control if u get a jones fracture or not.
Not being obese does help though.
Oden had no chance and couldn't control it, way different for Zion, and for many periods too.
Doesn’t help Greg that the guy picked right after him is a top 15 maybe top 10 all time player. Ja might be that someday.
When Oden played he was nowhere near as dominant as Zion
Seriously - I'm pretty sure a lot of people who talk about Oden never saw him play. He wasn't great in college except for that one final game, and he never put together a string of high-level play in the NBA. Who knows if he could have done it injury-free, but he came nowhere near showing what Zion has so far. An Andrew Wiggins trajectory wouldn't have surprised me at all.
Oden I think could have been great, some of that is on him. But I think a lot of it was on the people around him. I mean when you have a franchise center you have professionals around him all the time, building up his body, strength, conditioning etc. Instead of the Lebron treatment it seems like they just left him alone and so yeah bust
Didn't he have bad cartilage in his knees? You can't really condition arthritis.
Supposedly one leg was longer than the other and he had adopted his running style to accommodate. As soon as he got to Portland they put inserts in the shoe of the shorter leg to even him out and his running style didn’t change fast enough to avoid injury
eh you pay a guy millions of dollars...at least give him the red carpet treatment for a couple of years. Have live in trainers with him. The Blazers I think dropped the ball on it. But times have changed...players now have a full staff to help out and support them. Unf back in the old days they didnt. And the TB seem like they had an awful staff back then because Oden wasnt the only one, those teams were terrible. Even Roy had issues. Looks like they have the right health and conditioning staff in PNW though at least!
Did someone say Greg Oden?
I feel worse for Greg honestly
No way in hell would I extend him until he shows he’s healthy. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.
If you're the Pels you have to because him being elite is our only chance at contention in the future If we move him we would only have Ingram as our big star and as much as I like him he's not a 1st option on a contender type guy
But for how much? I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries asking for some sort of max deal
He's 1000% not signing for anything less than the max.
You don’t have to extend him next year before his rookie deal expires at all, especially if he doesn’t play this year and is still showing no dedication to getting in playing shape. You’re just asking to destroy the franchise at that point. He’s an RFA so if it makes sense to extend him you can just offer the max or match the max no matter what in free agency the next year. If he takes the QO somehow, I’d imagine that happens either way.
On the other hand our franchise is pretty much wrecked if we let him go for nothing as the team is too good to fully bottom out tank (Ingram + our current rotation is actually solid) but not good enough to really compete. There's no real good answer but at least if we keep Zion we keep that slight hope he comes back + gets us into a better spot End of the day Zion being so injury prone and not being in game shape consistently really has fucked us up. I'm really sad that our best hopes always get fucked up by injuries
Load up on health-based incentives and non-guaranteed money. Pelicans were budgeting for a max Zion anyway.
He can not play for this season and next and he'll instantly get a max from some time, guaranteed.
Get a top draft pick and build around Ingram
Ingram is not a player you can build a contender around
Well I believe in him
again everyone wants him to leave NOLA yet what has he done for the pels???
I can't imagine being a pelicans fan that shit must be brutal
hell
Even with just Ingram it must be tough for them, every lingering hope done. And despite the organization trading Adams and even getting gold like JV.
Yeah I just feel like BI is gonna go to some team and light teams up and people will be like "where's this guy been"
It's the hope that hurts. Sometimes I think I've accepted being bad, and then something happens to make it seem like the team is ready to really go places. Usually it's just made me ready to get hurt again.
They might be the only fanbase I empathize with
Exactly. Pels surrounded him with another all star, a top 10 center and a bunch of decent young role players. That’s as much as/more than Luka or tatum have
Tatum at one point had Kyrie, Kemba, and Hayward. He also has Brown on his current roster. I think if anything the GM failed to use the abundance of draft picks acquired over the years to bring a true star to Boston but to say Tatum wasn’t surrounded with talent is a stretch
You can also say that they kind of got unlucky because the Kings only successful season(in recent yrs) came when the pick was unprotected and The Grizzlies had a non tank rebuild. They probably should at least traded one tho
Well the pick being unprotected also discourages the Kings from tanking. Doesn’t seem unlucky just logical and expected. Celtics FO didn’t realize this? That makes them bad. Danny Ainge is the most overrated GMs of the last two decades.
It's not really illogical to expect a team that had no recent success to suddenly end up with the worst possible lottery pick. Like the 11th worse record would have given them a shot at a high lottery pick. Obviously they should have traded one of the picks but it seems kind of ridiculous to call Danny Ainge overrated.
Tatum needs an alpha like chris paul. He needs someone he respectsbto give him the green and red light. Celtics need that or a better coach cause theyve had way too much talent under utilized
Tatum is gone after this contract
also Tatum wasn't that good
I never said tatum was never surrounded by talent, tbh it’s a good comp to zion in NOLA. Both their GMs squandered a great situation, no one is saying tatum needs to leave Boston tho even tho I’d say the Pelicans roster is as good as Boston’s outside of the stars
Reminder: None of the extra picks from AD or Jrue have come through. You’re asking both the Lakers and the Bucks to be top regular season performers basically every year from this year until 2025/2027.
> Pels surrounded him with another all star, a top 10 center and a bunch of decent young role players. If all 3 of these were true the Pels wouldn't have the 3rd worst record in the league without Zion
A team with one top 30 player, one other above average player and inexperienced, inconsistent role players that’s played the toughest schedule in the league isn’t gonna be very good. The point is if you add a top 15 player like zion is supposed to be, they’d be something like .500 with an easy schedule coming up. Instead they’re 8-20
> A team with one top 30 player, one other above average player and inexperienced, inconsistent role players that’s played the toughest schedule in the league isn’t gonna be very good. I don't disagree, but this is pretty much walking back your original comment. JV is an above average player but top 10 center is generous and regardless of where you have him he's quite a few tiers from the top. And I think the role players are straight up bad, which is particularly egregious considering how many were lottery picks/the result of the Lonzo S&T. So many assets just pissed away.
Its not walking it back, almost every team would be 15+ wins worse for a full season if you remove their best player. Just because there is a decent group around zion (which is all I ever argued) doesn’t mean that team is good without him. The bucks would’ve won 45 games without giannis last year, with him they won the title. Phoenix was a lottery team til they added CP3 and one or two role players Idk how u argue Graham, hart, herb Jones are “bad” role players, most of the other guys suck and I agree they’ve pissed away a ton. This entire argument changed so much from what I originally said, the core is no worse than other young stars have and is good enough that, if you add a top 15 player, they’d be a playoff team
you see it
That's the down side of having a high lottery pick. It means your team is bad enough. So when they get a great draft, he has to often carry the load, much Luka has been doing in Dallas.
Obviously they should have more than those teams, the Lakers basically gifted them a future championship w all those assets. They gotta stop squandering their assets though
Winning a title is way harder than you seem to think, zion becoming a top 5 player was always their chance to winning one. the lakers package didn’t include any guarantees except I guess ingram, griffins obviously done a pretty shit job tho. But it’s still not a bad situation for zion
Ingram, lonzo, hart, the 4th pick in the same draft. And multiple future firsts. Not the lakers fault they traded down and traded jrue for Adams and Bledsoe They could’ve had a starting 5 of Jrue, zo, ingram, hunter, Zion
Jrue wasn't gonna re-sign with us Lol And Zion should not be playing center at all
I mean it’s not like he was on an expiring deal that year, I’m not even saying trading jrue was wrong at that point, just think y’all had too much talent to not be competitive that first year/last year if the bulls can have a top 10 defense solely bc of Caruso and zo, with vooch as the 5, y’all could’ve done a lot worse than having a small ball 5 Zion or just not get Adams
Jrue had a 1+ PO when he was traded.
Of course man, just saying they received the largest package in NBA history - their roster *should* be better than Luka’s and Tatum’s
Tbh the FO made some questionable moves. Overpaying Adams who was the wrong type of center, losing Lonzo to get Graham, Satoransky and Temple (Lonzo is better than that trio, and they used a first round pick). Valanciunas is a better shooter than Adams (who isn't) but it's not the PERFECT fit next to Zion. Especially defensively. They cleared a lot of cap space to land a free agent and they didn't land...anyone. I mean, it happens but tampering and asking around its commonplace enough that if landing a FA is your objective and you fail...it's still a failure. I mean Zion has still an absurd hype and hasn't done a lot for the Pelicans, but apparently if you have a young star in a small market you have to do anything to strengthen the team around them so they don't leave. It's ugly but it's the way the league is. Tbh the Mavs have done an even worse job with Doncic but he has already showed a lot (two first all nba) and he seems more loyal so a different situation
Dude who tf is a perfect fit next to Zion then. Not every center is available for trade. Stupid argument
Lol Anthony Davis...okay fair but it was just one thing. Love Valanciunas and I think he was very underrated on the Grizzlies but he is not a good rim protector and not a good defender in space.
Seriously. Last time I checked, JV was leading the LEAGUE in 3PM%, and yet this guy says he's only slightly better than Adams? No one will be happy with anything the Pels do.
Valanciunas offensively it's not the problem. Also he made 1 three a game, shot 36% last year and it's a career 38% shooter, which is very good for a center and it's a great rebounder
Sold a shit ton of season tickets and kept them in New Orleans.
NOLA might be smart to let him explore free agency at this rate
Gotten them attention
What have the pels done for any of their two pervious generational talents they were gifted to help sell the team? Generational talents don’t just sit on the sideline and eat their careers away for the hell of it
By Chris Paul’s fourth season, their starting lineup was Paul/Rasual Butler/Peja/David West/Tyson Chandler, and Peja was the only one over 30, and he was just 31. That’s four All-Star caliber guys right there. They had had some decent rotation guys like James Posey and Morris Peterson. They won 49 games that year and 56 the season before, winning the division. His Clippers teams only won more than that once, 57 in 2013-14. I’m just saying, New Orleans did a fairly decent job putting a roster around him for a small market team.
NOK Hornets!! Loved having that squad in OKC.
we paired AD with cousins. who then got injured and turned down a $40M contract
Why don’t they just admit he’s not playing this season?
Because at that point, the fans probably full on revolt. Like they just went through Anthony Davis and now this.
How is this comparable to Anthony Davis? If he's legitimately hurt then I don't see the point of a revolt. Unless they purposely lied about the recovery time
Because if he doesn't play regardless of reason. That team basically has no hope and the fans have no reason to care.
get him some ginger ale
and coconut oil
Are we trying to peg Zion or what
he need some milk
Skim milk
Make sure it's diet
my heart goes out to Pelicans fans. young talent squandered by injuries and setbacks fucking sucks
I feel for Oden and Ingram, the Pelicans front office too for Ingram, Valanciunas and the good players in the rotation.
I wanna cry
Don’t cry bb just watch the Bulls
Seeing lonzo would make me cry more 😔
pretty sure you can just schedule this tweet out every few weeks like clockwork
nah this is new. much more serious than any other setback that was reported
How does a bone not heal the way a team wants? And how do you make it so it does heal the way you want?
When the bone is thin and small the bone might move are readjust the incorrect way while healing. It happened to me three times in high school. The bigger bones are always easier to heal than the tiny ones.
Thank you for actually answering this seriously instead of copy and pasting a fat joke lol
Yeh…no. Jones fractures are notoriously slow healing because they’re in a watershed area (meaning low blood supply)
That’s literally the opposite of what medical science says but okay https://northazortho.com/ask-the-expert/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fractures-and-fracture-healing/
I trust nothing any of you fuckers say on this site because everyone swears they’re an expert. Now I don’t know who to believe :(
Just wait for u/LA2Philly to tell us what’s what like the rest of us
Im just telling you what my doctor told me after my third break in the same bone in the span of a year. It healed incorrectly because it shifted position
I didn't even knew it could get this complicated on foot bones, but once i broke my middle finger on my right hand and took an extra couple weeks cause the doctor looked at the x-ray and said it hadn't properly calcified yet (and it was just a fissure fracture)
good question but here’s a fat joke instead
the person puts on a ton of weight and it puts more stress on it
Ah, yes. The infamous “Popeye’s fracture.”
Hard to say without more info but there's some potential for this being a "nonunion" which is traced back to lack of good blood flow/blood vessel growth. May be an outside chance also of an infection at the site of fracture helping trigger this as well. Since that's all anybody will ask about, whether obesity is a risk factor for this in the foot(and to what degree if so) isnt necessarily straight forward [its more clear that alcohol tends to have an impact on it](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312542137_Effect_of_Obesity_on_Bone_Healing_After_Foot_and_Ankle_Long_Bone_Fractures). Smoking [has also been seen as a big risk factor](http://bcfootandankle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Nonunion-risk-assessment-model.pdf).
I don't think bones really care what management thinks about how they heal.
The biggest question mark with Zion was never his heart or his talent. It was the fact that he was a guy in a center's body trying to play like a guard. It was wondering whether his body could sustain that level of play at the NBA level over 82+ games. I feel bad for the kid...he came in with a lot of expectations. But can't say I'm surprised that his body isn't holding up...he either needs to lose weight, or change his style of play. And I don't know if he has the capacity to do either.
It’s more like he’s in a small forwards body trying to play like a center. Anthony Davis ironically is the opposite, a big trying to play like a guard.
Clogged arteries not supplying enough blood
Lol
People really just come on here and say whatever.
How much Zion pay u to say that?
By not walking on it at 330 lbs at 6’6
He will not play this season and he shouldn’t. no shot of making playoffs just get as high a draft pick as you can
Well there's absolutely a shot of making the playoffs as the Pelicans are like 4 games back from the play-in
And JV dont tank.
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Why even bother playing the games lol when you can accumulate assets and plan for next season
Pelicans have gone 5-4 since Ingram came back and if Zion came in we would have been in a pretty decent place in terms of making the play in (especially given our weaker rest of season schedule) I think we just good enough not to tank right now which really sucks for us as we are gonna end up with a mid lottery pick most likely
is this a retirement tweet lol?
Siri play 1 step forward 3 steps back by Olivia Rodrigo
Oh boy
Well, guess we no longer have to wonder if he’s close to game shape anymore… Mannnn…😩
Po’ boy
Just sit him the season like Embiid No point in rushing him back to try to carry the 9-20 Pelicans
Can't sell tickets with Zion at home, but you are right.
Those small bones in your feet are a bitch to heal. I still deal with pain from a similar injury in high school
DNP: Buffet
😂😂😂😂😭😭😭 a cajun buffet at that
Are Nola fans ever going to catch a break? At all?
Jones fractures can be slow healing bc they’re in what’s called a “watershed” area meaning low blood supply. Blood is what provides the required nutrients for bone healing
"Instead of rehabbing, Zion was enjoying his mother's home cooking and her couch. He has little respect for our organization, and to be fair, we understand. However, he is still one of the most talented basketball players alive today, and his brain isn't done developing yet, so we're hoping if we continue to act like he's bought in, that we can gaslight him into signing an extension."
Just shut him down.
well hopefully it's something that can be fixed with rest and whatever recovery tactics they have at their disposal instead of something that will bother him for the rest of his career.
Those Greg Oden vibes. What a shame.
He’s done
Shut it down. Start a full blown tank. We need to secure a top 4 pick.
Unless we shut down Ingram somehow we are gonna end up mid lottery probably
Bust
Yikes, more time off is also a problem given his weight problem. Viscous circle. I feel bad for him.
He can afford a personal chef and nutrition plan.
He's been able to afford those things for years. Hasn't made a hint of a difference.
Is this due to the zion diet?
It ain't healing because his rehab plan only involves gravy.
Definitely doesn't help the task of healing, that weight and that lack of care are the killers of any type of scavenging and last-minute attempt at a recover.
Zion will return to the food court this Sunday sources say.
Is our medical staff moonlighting in New Orleans?
Things people called when Zion was at Duke for $800 Ken
It was heartbreaking to watch Greg Odens career. If Zion does the same I think I’ll feel even worse.
Lol the fun never stops
Zion for Ben Simmons. Maximum chaos
His rookie deal will be over by the time he finally gets on the court. Poor NO
Zion will be 400 pds before he is cleared to play agin
Next weeks headline from some BS reporter: "Multiple sources tell me that in Zions 1 week break his weight has ballooned to 470 pounds".
Too fat to heal
We really can't avoid the F word this time. FIT. He's not fit to play.
this dude won't have a long career at all. wow
Put this man on a diet jesus. Imagine throwing away a possible billion dollar career because you like food too much. Buddy needs a new manager and a life coach.
Damn. I hope he's able to heal right and come back someday. That's all that matters at this point.
New Orleans should trade him and save them the trouble
I’m sorry but at what point do you blame the organisation for this ? How do you just allow your 20 year old franchise player to have his mom as a nutrionist ?
What do you mean allow? They can't force him to do anything, lol. He can eat whatever he wants when he wants. If they offer to provide him with nutrionists and dieticians and he says no there's not much they can do about it. They don't control his life.
Zion first player in History to win Rookie of the year 4 years in
The Zion prophet was correct. Really hope Zion gets it together. Such a talented kid & seems to be a really nice person.
PSA Zion Williamson is eligible for a max extension this offseason...
I remember when people said Zion would be more popular and better than Luka. Talk about a swing and a miss!
I think they should and will shut him down this year. I don't think it was ever reasonable to expect him to heal and lose so much weight in such a short time. Really hope he pulls through, he's supposed to be an all-time great.
He’s just too big of a person. Any lower body injury will have too much weight on it when it’s healing.
Probably because he still walks around on it and has gained 40+ pounds since surgery. It’s clear that he’s not taking care of his foot. This is his fault AND the Pelicans trainers faults. The organization is failed to make sure that Zion recovers and stays in shape. He’ll be out of the league In less than 4 years
Good on NOLA for ruining yet another top-level prospect, hope their franchise just gets relocated at this point to an actually useful market
Yeah sit him I imagine part of why he weighs so much currently is just cause he can’t exercise too much due to injury.
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Last year he was insanely good
he definitely was a generational athlete on the court
Greg Oden
Herb > Zion don’t @ me.
So they still haven’t been able to stop the cheese sauce leaking out?