Full Z Weight Timeline from Sauces

Go back and watch the 2019 Preseason highlights. Play 2 down the court Zion had his head a foot above the rim. He was legitimately Duke Zion then. He had roughly 5-10 pounds more of muscle, but he was built like the God we thought we were getting during that preseason. It showed in his explosiveness. He shot 73% from the floor that preseason bc no one could jump with him. Then he injured his knee, gained a shite load of weight and committed to playing a more ground bound game to try to stay healthier.

Duke Zion weighed in at 284 during college training camp. By the mid of the season he was playing at 265-270. He had his shoe explode, missed 2 weeks and played the rest of the year out at 280. After the tourney, he went agent hunting, show deal hunting, etc and he was roughly 305 in the Summer League debut, but since he had never truly been injured at that point, he still had his Duke hops, even though he was carrying 30 extra pounds.

Zion bumped knees in the preseason and Griff held him out the rest of the way. By the time he got to camp and had to weigh in he was back at 285. By the time Preseason started he was at 280.

Then Z got injured and at one point due to it being a serious injury, slight to moderate depression (understandable), not being able to run etc, he got up to 330.

Griff wanted him down below 300 before playing, but Zion couldn’t get there without playing and he and his fam put pressure on the Pels to play him. Hence the infamous bursts. Z was playing at 310 when he came back from injury and he dropped down to 295 by March before the season shut down.

Z did train hard during the pandemic, but he also ate and probably didn’t do as much cardio as he needed. He was lifting weights, hooping a lot and doing a lot of skill work, but he wasn’t playing balls to the walls 5 v 5 or running as much as he probably needed to. He’s not the only one, but his body type and need for cardio is unique so it’s more pronounced when Z hasn’t been getting serious cardio in. Z ultimately came into the bubble at 307 pounds, but as we all remember from that masked photo, it was a beautiful 307. Just not quite a basketball 307.

We all now know he tweaked a hammy and while he was out of the bubble seeking opinions on that he gained 10 pounds in essentially 10 days.

He came back in the bubble at 317 and not only that, his body composition completely changed in a matter of 10 days. His body fat percentage measured 3% higher, which shouldn’t be possible, but Zion is a different physical specimen than most so he not only adds muscle quicker than 99% of humans, he also adds fat quicker than 99% of humans.

After recovering fully from the hamstring and the embarassing bubble experience, Zion worked his butt off in the short offseason and got down to 292. People questioned Zion’s conditioning earlier in the year, but he actually really was in good shape, he was just more hesitant in a new system under a new coach and if everyone remembers, the entire organization was hyping Ingram as the leader and best player on the team, so Zion was not 100% sure how to assert himself until SVG let him run PZ sets about a month into the season.

All that being said, Zion did pretty much maintain his weight during last season. At one point he got down to 285 until he gained back up to 295 at the end of the year when he didn’t play the last 12 games.

Zion’s weight now? 316. At one point during the offseason he was down to 279 (when he was “probably overdoing it”) and there was another point where he was up to 325. The pounds have started to shed as his rehab progresses and he’s able to do more and more cardio. The word is Griff wants him below 300 before he plays this year, but the final number might end up being negotiated like it was last time.

It’s a bit of a catch 22 with Zion. For whatever reason, Z needs to play basketball to control his weight, but if he plays too much basketball, he gets injured and that causes a vicious weight yo yo cycle.

Zion’s perfect basketball playing weight is probably under 260, the problem is it will take a lot of playing basketball at a heavier weight to get there, risking more injury along the way.