Controversial Take on Zion and others like him.

[djrnno]

I agree at this point it's hard to envision a version of Zion that can play a 6-month NBA season and then make it through the grind of the playoffs, high-leverage, extended minutes, and make it to the championship. Just hard to envision.

I can accept two courses. First, Zion and the Pels go all in on bringing in the best trainers, consultants, physios, etc...all geared to developing a regime to address Zion's soft tissue injury problems + Zion gets his weight down to the 260 range and stays there. I just don't think there is any hope at all he can play a season+playoffs at 280pds+. No chance.

Second, if the first course is not achievable for whatever reason (Zion won't cooperate/the team won't commit) then I think you have to move on from Zion. He is a transcendent offensive player. But it simply is not tenable to build your roster around a player that you all but know won't be available 50% of the time or, more crucially, can't survive the rigors of the season to play extended minutes in the post-season. What's the point if he is never available in the playoffs? You're just treading water and prolonging the misery. Sad situation, but time to face facts...

Like I said in my post, it's insane the amount of soft tissue injuries the Pels AND the Saints have had this yr. Even though they cleaned house of the med staff a few yrs ago it's time for an overall again along with the strength and conditioning staff. Spend whatever it takes to get the best in the world with soft tissue people

[ml wave]

The 1st thing is you go out and find the absolute world best at conditioning and dealing with soft tissue and hamstring issues because the Saints need it as well with all the soft tissue injuries they have had. Then you might as a precautionary measure not let Z play in B2B games or you could make a radical decision to keep him out of games with very weak opponents thinking that we could win without him

The real first thing the Pels should do is take care of their own players and let the Saints do whatever they want. The Pels are already a second class citizen in their own building, if there's some best in the world with conditioning/soft tissue injury person, he or she will be occupied with the Saints from start of training camp in July through the end of the season in January--when exactly are they supposed to work with NBA players?

[13 - 3]

Perk just called him pajamas on live tv. Says he is holding Pelicans back from moving forward. He just might be right.

[djrnno]

The real first thing the Pels should do is take care of their own players and let the Saints do whatever they want. The Pels are already a second class citizen in their own building, if there's some best in the world with conditioning/soft tissue injury person, he or she will be occupied with the Saints from start of training camp in July through the end of the season in January--when exactly are they supposed to work with NBA players?

SMH , you hire quality people for BOTH teams because what we have now is NOT working

[13 - 3]

"AD had a nickname a couple years ago as "Street Clothes" well we need to call Zion "Pajamas"... If you're an organization that has championship aspirations, Zion cannot be the face of your team because he's never available"

-- Kendrick Perkins on Zion Williamson pic.twitter.com/aJaafmQjuL

— Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) November 14, 2024

[JJackisangry]

I don't think ownership is the problem, Mrs.B is more than willing to spend whatever needs be and do whatever the GM wants both DG and ML wants. The issue could be in mistakes done by both, more DG than ML because ML leans more on what the HC and scouting dept wants

She is part of the problem. Her heart is in the right place. I just don't think she is ruthless enough to make the right choices. If that was the case, there is no way Gentry would have gotten a freebie season to entice him to take an organizational position. Supposedly her condition for hiring Griff was that he had to be okay with keeping Gentry for another season. She has definitely made some headscratching decisions. But she definitely helped keep us here in NO. Hard to be mad with her

[hornetsrebirth]

Guys I'm going to sound like a broken record but the problem is we are missing most of the core team. If Willie green was losing with the team that was built it would be concerning, losing with all these guys out is just sadly the expected outcome.

[JJackisangry]

Guys I'm going to sound like a broken record but the problem is we are missing most of the core team. If Willie green was losing with the team that was built it would be concerning, losing with all these guys out is just sadly the expected outcome.

That is always going to be a problem then. Our players are never healthy. I am not going to hold my breath for Green or these players staying healthy.

[hornetsrebirth]

That is always going to be a problem then. Our players are never healthy. I am not going to hold my breath for Green or these players staying healthy.

Then it's always going to be a problem. No matter who is coaching. There isn't a coach in the league that's going to do well missing 60 percent of his team's salary.

[13 - 3]

Wemby dropped 50 tonight. He is everything Zion should have been!

[Darkhorse985]

The topic that hasn?t been discussed enough is the absolute trash offensive system that is run in New Orleans isolating their players forcing them to make quick and sudden moves constantly while taking contact, ultimately exposing their players more to injury. That is the real problem with this team. So, fire Willie Green. He is a huge part of the problem.

[djrnno]

She is part of the problem. Her heart is in the right place. I just don't think she is ruthless enough to make the right choices. If that was the case, there is no way Gentry would have gotten a freebie season to entice him to take an organizational position. Supposedly her condition for hiring Griff was that he had to be okay with keeping Gentry for another season. She has definitely made some headscratching decisions. But she definitely helped keep us here in NO. Hard to be mad with her

Yes and no. You're right GB is not ruthless, not sure you need to be.But she did convince Loomis to be on board with firing Allen. I think he would have fired him at the end of the season but he did not want to do it in season. So she may not be as sentimental or wishy-washy as some thought so

[13 - 3]

The topic that hasn?t been discussed enough is the absolute trash offensive system that is run in New Orleans isolating their players forcing them to make quick and sudden moves constantly while taking contact, ultimately exposing their players more to injury. That is the real problem with this team. So, fire Willie Green. He is a huge part of the problem.

Doesn’t Alvin Gentry and SVG deserve some of the blame too? I’ll give SVG this he is a very smart man listening to him on TV. I just don’t think his system fit today’s NBA. Willie is running a Steve Kerr system that is stale unless you got the splash brothers on your team. Ask Jayson Tatum what he thinks of that system.

[13 - 3]

Think of the talent we passed on in that draft. Darius Garland, Ja Morant to name a few.

[hornetsrebirth]

Think of the talent we passed on in that draft. Darius Garland, Ja Morant to name a few.

pretty stupid thought to be having

[P_B_&_G]

Think of the talent we passed on in that draft. Darius Garland, Ja Morant to name a few.

Morant is injured almost as often as Zion.

Passing on Garland and taking Jax and (wasnt it Naw) was egregious.

[hornetsrebirth]

Morant is injured almost as often as Zion.

Passing on Garland and taking Jax and (wasnt it Naw) was egregious.

we didnt though, Garland was off the board

[P_B_&_G]

we didnt though, Garland was off the board

They passed on him. Had the 4th pick and traded it for 8th, 17th and 35. He went 5th.

That 4th pick was part of the AD trade.

Imagine the trajectory of this organization with Zion and Garland? Probably never make the CJ trade either.

Griff has drafted well overall but that was a mortal sin to me. Especially since we've needed a PG since Rondo was here and CP3 before him.

[hornetsrebirth]

They passed on him. Had the 4th pick and traded it for 8th, 17th and 35. He went 5th.

That 4th pick was part of the AD trade.

Imagine the trajectory of this organization with Zion and Garland? Probably never make the CJ trade either.

Griff has drafted well overall but that was a mortal sin to me. Especially since we've needed a PG since Rondo was here and CP3 before him.

i see what you are saying. At time the team had Jrue Holiday and just added Lonzo Ball but with the benefit of hindsight in a fantasy revisionist history sure. We should have all been buying bitcoin then too.

[donato]

i see what you are saying. At time the team had Jrue Holiday and just added Lonzo Ball but with the benefit of hindsight in a fantasy revisionist history sure. We should have all been buying bitcoin then too.

The front office gets nothing short of an F- with that draft, revisionist history or not. Trading the pick got us Jaxson Hayes, NAW and Didi Louzada. Sure, NAW became a decent contributor somewhere else, but the front office gets zero points for that.

[P_B_&_G]

The front office gets nothing short of an F- with that draft, revisionist history or not. Trading the pick got us Jaxson Hayes, NAW and Didi Louzada. Sure, NAW became a decent contributor somewhere else, but the front office gets zero points for that.

This, the odds of hitting on a 4th pick are far better than 8th. They probably wouldn't have taken Garland anyway though. I think his injury scared them away.

[hornetsrebirth]

The front office gets nothing short of an F- with that draft, revisionist history or not. Trading the pick got us Jaxson Hayes, NAW and Didi Louzada. Sure, NAW became a decent contributor somewhere else, but the front office gets zero points for that.

You know we got Zion in that draft right?

[hornetsrebirth]

This, the odds of hitting on a 4th pick are far better than 8th. They probably wouldn't have taken Garland anyway though. I think his injury scared them away.

That's not really true though.

http://nbasense.com/draft-pick-trade...kevin-pelton-2

8 + 17 has more value than 4, common wisdom says you're better off with the 2 picks.

[donato]

You know we got Zion in that draft right?

Ok, you're right. Correction: What we did with the #4 pick gets an F-.

[P_B_&_G]

That's not really true though.

http://nbasense.com/draft-pick-trade...kevin-pelton-2

8 + 17 has more value than 4, common wisdom says you're better off with the 2 picks.

It's not true based on a point system to attempt to place an arbitrary value on a given pick.

Look at the best players drafted at #4 historically. Chris Paul, Westbrook, Chris Bosh, Mutombo and many more. Here is a list of the top 20.

https://fadeawayworld.net/20-greates...in-nba-history

Now look at the best taken at 8. Robert Parish leads the way here with Detlef Schremph and Jamal Crawford but I can only find a top 10.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...in-nba-history

Here are some taken at 17. Jrue Holiday, Dennis Schroder, TM3. There is no top 10 list for 17. Here are all the 17th picks back to 2000.

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/eve...rall-pick-ever

While 8 and 17 might be better "value" when looking at it that way, and Griff has generally drafted well, you will most often be able to get a player with a much higher ceiling at 4 than at 8 and definately at 17. The point is that he whiffed massively on this one.