Zion 2022 vs Zion 2023

Agreed on Zion. He has to learn something besides just put your head down and drive to the goal.
There was a bunch of times he had an easy 5-10 footer with no one on him and he's scared to shoot.
I'm just not convinced Zion will do anything but slowly get worst because he's not a professional and doesn't seem to work to improve his game.

This "team" is just a collection of talent, with no leadership or coaching.
I have no idea what Willie and these coaches are thinking with some of the lineups they put out there and even worst is some of their late game decisions.
But, at least we have a nice guy who doesn't cuss on the sidelines.

He also added Fat
He has to learn how to not be scared of shooting those open short jumpers.
This far into the season and the dude still isn't in good basketball condition. That's his problem. You can see he is slowly getting better, but still not there.
It's also a problem that you have a coach who doesn't know who to make the Alpha on this team.
Yo Willie, BI isn't an Alpha. he's a good sometimes great player. But, you have to get away from straight iso BI with 4 other players sitting around with their thumb up their arse.

I really believe that Trey and CJ struggle late because they go through LONG stretches of not getting any plays.

This team is talented enough to be good, probably great with a better coach.

Zion’s issue is he’s too fat. He’s proven in the past his offensive game is just fine to dominate, he just cannot execute to its fullest potential in his current state. He doesn’t need a jumper, he doesn’t need a 3P shot, he just needs to be less fat to get where he needs to be on the floor and at the rim.

Adding extra to his game is great but we are putting the cart before the horse here. Nothing can be accomplished until he’s less fat.

I remember watching Zion's highlights in HS and thinking he was arguably the most exciting highlight machine in HS I had ever seen. (Maybe Shaq's spectacular rim-shaking HS dunks excited me more.) But I never once thought this unstoppable Zion kid would one day be on a team I root for.

6 years later, his offensive game has barely evolved from dunks & layups, and his defense regressed considerably with each increased level of competition. And despite having a rare stretch of health this year, he's intermittently looked stoppable offensively for the first time since I've since I've been following his career.

The % of Zion's buckets that were assisted his rookie year under Gentry was 76%

Year 2 under SVG 55%


The last 2 years under WIllie...46% both years




Willie doesn't know how to use Zion. He runs zero sets for ZIon when it matters, the offense does not run through Zion. Willie doesn't know what he's doing.


The offense runs through Zion. And even when it's not going through Zion, you need sets that incorporate Zion. Willie barely runs sets for Zion, and when Zion won't initiate, Willie parks him in the corner.

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Zion’s issue is he’s too fat. He’s proven in the past his offensive game is just fine to dominate, he just cannot execute to its fullest potential in his current state. He doesn’t need a jumper, he doesn’t need a 3P shot, he just needs to be less fat to get where he needs to be on the floor and at the rim.

Adding extra to his game is great but we are putting the cart before the horse here. Nothing can be accomplished until he’s less fat.

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This

It would be nice for Zion to add other shots to his game, but we've seen him be MVP level dominant without doing that. Giannis can't shoot for shite. Sure he tries, but no opponent cares about him shooting 3s. He's dominant solely around the rim, just like Zion has been and could be if he were in shape.

Couple that with a coach who doesn't use him as a #1, and you get the Zion we have now, just a solid player at best.

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The % of Zion's buckets that were assisted his rookie year under Gentry was 76%

Year 2 under SVG 55%


The last 2 years under WIllie...46% both years

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wow. granted he's barely played much at all for all 3 of those guys, that's a pretty eye opening stat, and one I do not like at all.

I literally just made a post talking about both BI and Zion are doing way too much ISO ball while the rest of the team just watches. That is never successful, well, unless the guy is just red hot and you are just letting him go to work, but that typcially lasts for a couple of minutes at best.

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The offense runs through Zion. And even when it's not going through Zion, you need sets that incorporate Zion. Willie barely runs sets for Zion, and when Zion won't initiate, Willie parks him in the corner.

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Nothing infuriates me more than seeing Zion in the corner on an offensive set and does nothing. That should never happen. Never.


I don't understand why we don't see more Zion/JV action together around the FT line. JV finishes easily with the ball above his head near the rim. Zion needs to go around that JV pick with patience and wait to see if he can explode for an easy layup, shoot an easy 8 footer while JV is under the goal for an offensive rebound, or lob it up to JV. The big to big pick has been popular recently, yet we never do it.
I don't understand why we hardly ever see BI/Zion action. The BI/Zion action should be run specifically with Trey or CJ on the court and in the most likely position to be wide open for a 3, meaning the corner. And when you run that action right either Zion is getting the ball going to the rim with minimal resistance, or BI is getting an easy mid range shot that he's stepping into, which he hits at a high rate. Sticking JV in the corner is beyond stupid. I don't mind JV taking 3's from the top of the key, but he sucks from the corner for whatever reason.
JV is shooting 21% on corner 3's this year, and he's taken more than he ever has in his career by a good bit. and to think he's shooting 36% from 3 this year, while a quarter of those shots are from the corner where he's bricking them at 21%. Last year he took 4% of his 3's from the corner. The year before that, 2%. He's already taken more corner 3's this year than he has the last 2 years combined.

There's just no reason for JV or Zion to ever be in the corner on offense. Neither one of them can be effective from the corner in any type of offense, unless they are going to flash up and get the ball near the FT line. But just sitting in the corner, even if you give it to them there, that's just a terrible position for them to do anythign positive with the ball from there. Putting them in the corner is like playing 3 on 5. No one is guarding them in the corner, nor do they care if you pass it to them b/c they aren't closing out on them either and they'll just be waiting in the paint for them if they decide to drive.

and what's so stupid about it is that it's really not a terrible thing to do at the end of game, the clear out of 4 guys and let your guy at the top of the key create a shot for himself. Everyone does this at the end of games with their best players. What's stupid is we have BI trying to take Marcus Smart or Desmond Banes steroided arse one on one while there's help coming as well, and that's just an extremely tough ask for anyone to go up against. Do'nt bother trying to set a screen and get a mismatch for BI or anythign. And if anything, the screen and mismatch should be happening to get BI the ball more in the post where he can turnaround and rise up for an easy shot, or he can let the double come at him and pass out of it and let the ball movement create an easy opportunity for someone else. But no we try to take a guy one on one who's been one of the leagues best defenders since he got here. Saw the exact same thign with Houston with BI trying to go at big arse Dillon Brooks.

I'm not saying any of this about Zion to let Willie off the hook for our problems.

Indeed, I have far less of an issue with poor game management from Willie than the rest of the board. He's a young coach who's still learning, so I don't stress so much about rotations and timeouts and such.

But the primary responsibility of a coach is to get the most out of his players. And Griff saw that Willie inherited Teresa Witherspoon as, essentially, a personal coach for Zion. Zion repeatedly spoke glowingly about T-Spoon's influence on him and how much she helped him.

And, this offseason, Willie let her go, believing that he could get great production out of Zion without her. And he's failed miserably at that.

Willie has to bear responsibility for Zion's poor production. We can talk all we want about Zion's work ethic and conditioning, but it's a fact that T-Spoon had Zion producing at a high level last season, and Willie made the decision to fire her.

Unless we see a big improvement in Zion's production in as the season progresses, I feel that there is an 100% certainty that either Zion or Willie will not be in New Orleans next season.

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I get everything you're saying, but I just can't see TSpoon as the reason Zion goes from MVP caliber to just a solid player.

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Yeah agreed. The main reason to me is he wasn’t in shape and I would blame Zion getting rid of his trainer more of an issue. On a sidenote, I will say Zion just doesn’t seem to be enjoying playing basketball- that’s partly his own doing but also probably some underlying frustration with the organization as well.

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On a sidenote, I will say Zion just doesn’t seem to be enjoying playing basketball

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My best friend(not a Pels fan) has been telling me this for 3 years, and I've always told him he was wrong.

He's probably right lol.