re: Chuck Roasted Z

His Drtg is currently tied with the worst in his career. Not sure why you site only one side of the floor.

First bitching and whining is about 90% of what every fan forum I've ever read are about. If you did away with that, you might as close up shop. If you don't like reading critical comments about your team, I'd suggest just not being on a fan board. And many are much, much worse than in New Orleans. This stuff is tame.

Second, pointing out Z could and should be in better shape isn't complaining, it's a factual observation. Every coach I ever had made the same observation: "You guys need to get in shape! You faded in the fourth quarter because you aren't in good shape!" It's like a coach mantra.

Lastly, if your point is that nothing we say on a message board is going to have any effect in the real world so we should just shut up, that's true of any comments made here. This is a place to share information and observations. To try to tell people to stop doing that again defeats the whole purpose of having a forum.

Also, if you don't think the Pels seriously thought about trading Zion because of the problems we are talking about, you're dreaming. He can be and is a good player when not in top shape. But can he last a full season and the playoffs? And if he can't, year after year, can you build your franchise around him and still have championship aspirations? All fair questions.

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His Drtg is currently tied with the worst in his career.

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The idea that we won last night so we can't talk about these things and express those frustrations is just odd to me.

So if we just wait until our next loss, then bring something like this up, then it's ok?

It's just a logic I can't really grasp.

harsh but fair

And thats fine. I’m not saying people shouldn’t complain but after five years of complaining about the same thing with Zion and now we’re doing it even when he’s on the court and the day after a big win- I’m just saying its getting a little ridiculous. If he missed games because of injury or we had a shitty record- I get it. But we have a competitive record and are coming off a big road win in the in season tournament yet we are complaining about Zion not being in shape. I’m just saying there is time and place to complain. But the response will be we can complain anytime because this is message board and we’re fans. So complain away then.

There have been games this season when Zion has looked bad defensively. I did not think last night was one of them. I actually though his activity was as good as it's been all season. He jumped to contest shots. He jumped over people to tap balls away. His on ball contain was better, and of course the deflections and steals were there. (Yes, I still believe and want to see improvements in all of these areas. I just thought last night was a pleasant step in the right direction with that stuff.)

I just find the out of shape narrative as the reason he has a poor game to be lazy. Yes, he could be in better shape. But that isn't why he scored 10 points last night. He had 8 fg attempts and only played 28 minutes. He had averaged 28ppg in our last 5 and been by far our best player in the last 5 games. He was frustrated with the double and triple teams early. The team actually hit three pointers last night so they didn't have to figure out a counter attack to free Zion. Willie was content to let him sit much more than normal. That isn't a winning formula long term for this team. But it did work last night and I am happy it did.