quote:
As The Times-Picayune first reported two years ago, Williamson became frustrated with the Pelicans for the number of hoops they made him jump through to play again. When Williamson finally made his NBA debut against the San Antonio Spurs, the team placed him on “burst” limits, which he hated.

Williamson caught fire in the fourth quarter, nailing four 3s en route to 17 straight points. Yet in the middle of that explosion, he was yanked out of the game with 5:23 to go. The Pelicans lost. Williamson played 18 minutes, 18 seconds.

“He wasn’t happy about it,” Gentry said. “I don’t think anyone would be happy about it. I ain’t the brightest coach in the world, but I wasn’t going to take him out in those situations unless I was told to.”

Gentry was frustrated that the burst limits interrupted a magical moment and potentially cost his team a win. He also felt the Griffin-Nelson duo lacked feel for adhering to the burst limits in the fourth quarter, despite the way the game was going.

Williamson’s relationship with Nelson became strained during his rookie season. At different points, Williamson refused to work with him. It was a rocky first few months for Nelson, whose arrival the Pelicans had trumpeted with a glowing 1,800-word profile on their team website.

I know this is just one example, but in that moment when Zion is playing out of his mind and hitting multiple 3s, you have to leave him in there. You just can't be that rigid when dealing with a star player. Hell, most teams would love to have a 'problem' of players wanting to come back too early from injury. Usually it is the opposite.

As the article mentions, Zion's healthiest season was with Stan who practiced the team far harder than Uncle Al (unsure how it compares to Willie). To a degree, you have to get your body accustomed to the strain put on it during games. You can't treat it with kid gloves and then put it through unfamiliar force all of a sudden when its game time.