foosballnick wrote:Nalod wrote:Barret has been building and building under the radar week to week with steady progress. Like his game, not flashy instant results. He consistently get gets better. Results are what they are. Our words or hype never spoke as much as his truth.
His third season just starting. Sure I’d have liked to take Ja over RJ. THe Zion thing? Thats a tough one. Kid might be one of the greatest offensve weapons given his handle, passing, rebounding, etc………but the obvious at draft time and lingers worse is the mass/fat and human engineering of feet, ankle, knee that propels that mass like none other. Zion small sample are impressive as hell when he is on the court. Nalod was weary of drafting him and would be in any trade for those reasons.
PHil foretold his concerns with KP which is why he might have fallen to 4th. At that point it was a no brainer to take that risk as his upside was there. WE all saw his 2nd half season. The kid was special. PHil thought is lower body was not developed enough. He was right. Knee and back issues have limited his career from early unicorn hopes. Zion, even more than KP was seen as perhaps the next transcendent thing not seem before. Both had extreme body dimensions for the talent they possessed. But those bodies are paying a price.
I streamed the Knicks-Pelicans game on the New Orleans broadcast feed. The advertisements and fan engagement were fairly rinky dink in a minor league baseball kind of way. For instance at halftime they broadcast 2 fans who had to dig through a bowl of candy with a plastic spoon in their mouths to get to and eat the Rolo candy first. The only adds I saw were Smoothy King and Ibotta and they spend an inordinate amount of filler broadcasting fans dancing on "Dance Cam" with a half-filled arena.
My observation is that there is little chance Zion will stay in New Orleans for the longer term unless that team makes significant strides into a winning franchise. Also in looking at him on the sidelines, looks like his weight might have ballooned. A prudent franchise might want to have a full time Strength & Conditioning coach as well as personal nutritionist assigned just to him. At 250-275 he's a beast. At his reported 315+ weight his knees and ankles are yelling at him to stop the insanity.
The arena did not look very full in the lower bowl during the game. Not sure what that lease looks like but Seattle and Vegas are prime. Louisvile is foaming at the mouth to have a franchise.
At the end of the day we don’t know who is employed to help players but we frequently hear big money guys hire cooks and stay on an agenda. YOu don’t think Zion knows drinking mountain dew is bad for you? Or that stepping on scale tells a story? Or he broke his foot working out is an issue?
Also, that him being on the court is a difference maker. The team has bent to him. He should be begging for an extension then be that ******* dude that begs out. KP wanted out but he was the dude we wanted to build around. ZIon is next. I can’t speak for him or his habits but teams need be worried trading for him and he should be worried about getting chronically hurt and not get a payday.
. I completely agree on holding off on the anointing. As I believe on the rush to judgement in general. Good luck with that in the sports world!