Zion can’t fix this mess.

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Zion can’t fix this mess

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With him in the lineup we’d be at least where Sacramento is, and definitely wouldn’t be quitting

$250 million guaranteed?

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Well, we were the 1 seed after nearly a half season when he did play, so I'd think we wouldn't be outside of the play in if he were healthy.

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This

Don’t underestimate the psychological impact on his teammates. That’s why he was the #1 pick

Zion needs to be traded for pieces that can help the franchise. He's obviously not one of them.

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Zion can’t fix this mess.

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If he's healthy he's shown he can. What makes a superstar a superstar isn't scoring a bunch of points, it's making your teammates better because you score a bunch of points.

However, Zion papering over problems doesn't make the problems go away, and this team does have problems. The important thing is not to panic and make rash moves because what we are seeing are separate problems stacking together, so it's not as dire as it seems.

Coaching. Gentry, SVG and Willie Green have more or less the same support staffs. That's kind of nonsensical that a young coach and 2 veteran coaches would have the same staffs. They tend to need very different things. We hear great things about this staff so I'm not sure who you get rid of if anyone, but at the very least you need to swap out D'Antoni's Summer Camp Consulting for a full time Offensive Coordinator.

Modern Center. Teams attack your weakness, and the Pels
biggest weakness is JV defending in space. He had a -25 in 15 minutes. Larry was a +10 in 22 minutes. This goes back to coaching, but I don't understand how JV wasn't shifted to a bench role months ago. They already do it for finishing, and publicly at least, JV is the most "whatever the team needs from me to win" guy on the team.

Shooting. The team definitely can use more consistent shooting, but I've said it before, how do you get a shooter that Willie will play? It goes back to coaching and Willie constantly making defense first rotation decisions, except when it comes to starting JV.

I think all 3 need to be addressed, but to me Coaching is the biggest issue. With the connection Willie has made with the team, I don't think you fire him. But you absolutely have to get an assistant that will install an offense to make better use of the players on the court, and hopefully someone that could persuade Willie to have more balanced lineups.

My prediction from 7-5-2022


re: What’s your confidence level in Zion? - MizunoDude on 7/5/22 at 7:30 pm
Zero. Will never finish a full season and will be out of the league after 6 years...

Edit to correct the record: I wavered on time, but sentiment is there -

re: Shams: Zion is sitting tonight - MizunoDude on 8/7/20 at 5:58 pm
Zion will not play many “ Full seasons”. Injury prone and will Benoit of the league in 3 years..........

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Point is. Sacramento is a lot better than us and it’s not particularly close.

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IMO when they are playing both Zion and BI are better than anyone on the Kings roster, and CJ is equal or close.

The issue with the Pels is not roster quality when everyone is healthy, it’s the fragility of the roster due to lack of a backup for our best player and over reliance on defenders that are questionable shooters (you need some of those guys but the Pels have too many).

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having foot injuries meant no Jump shot practice.

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That’s not entirely true, there are form practices that can be done. They are tedious and boring but when injured is the perfect time to lean into them.

***Stuff like (1) laying on your back and shooting the ball straight up over your head, catch repeat about a thousand times a day, (2) swish drills standing on the lane boxes, (3) chair drills..shooting from a chair, (4) free throws, etc…there are tons and tons of shooting drills that don’t require use of the lower body, and Zion has a hammy issue so it’s not like he has to be non load bearing. If anything he should be doing tons of shooting practice.

If Zion doesn’t show up with an improved motion and jump shot after all the time off he has had the last two years, then it’s one more indictment of the training staff and Zion for simply not putting in the work.

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I mean The entire team is built around what Zion does.

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Not really though

Thats part of the problem, and probably not helping his injury proneness either.

If you were to imagine the ideal team around Zion it would probably look something like this:

Guard: Larger two-way on/off ball guard ala Tyrese Haliburton/Cade Cunningham. Guards that are natural point guards but can play off ball letting Zion cook and kick out.

Wings: Two Way, lengthy, can hit the three at good percentages and high volume, moves the ball well ala Mikal Bridges, ideally one can get their own shot

Center: Rim Protecting, switchable, good rebounder, can ideally step out and hit threes. Al Horford in his prime.


BI kinda fits one of the wing molds you'd like, just needs to take more threes and less contested long twos.

The rest? Not really. CJ is workable but is not a natural facilitator and not a good defender. Trey is honestly the closest we have on the roster to that other ideal wing, if he can take a leap defensively. But center is a mess and guard and wing depth(from a Zion fit perspective) and shooting overall are a mess.

I'm not saying you can go get him(though we might have had a shot at one point), but those to me are the ideal archetypes.

Obviously its probably not possible to get everything, like finding a prime Al Horford, who doesn't really exist right now. But you'd ideally build toward checking off as many of those boxes as possible.

And right now the two biggest are shooting and switchable rim protection without sacrificing too much rebounding.

Which is why I think Griff has some tough decisions. fan favorites like Jose, Naji, Billy, Herb, Kira, JV, and maybe even Dyson if another offseason doesn't show meaningful shooting progress, probably need to be on the table to put better fitting pieces around our core....IF we are committed to this core.