Zion Williamson has been in the news lately as there are signs that he no longer wants to play in New Orleans. Zion has personally given no indication of what it wants. There is a whisper coming from his father.
Matt Barnes, a former player who recently entered the NBA, said:
"I don't think Zion wants to be there... Not from her side, but from her family, the jump is making a ruckus. And it's hard for smaller market teams to retain young superstars."
We have seen this film before. A few years ago, Anthony Davis's father expressed outrage over how the Pelicans organization was being run. AD remained silent for some time until he suddenly sought a trade that eventually sent him to one of the largest markets in the world, Los Angeles.
Like Eddie, Zion is an All-Star big guy playing for the same struggling Pelicans team based in a small football town. It's true that Williamson hasn't come out and offended New Orleans, but as the old cliché, where there's smoke, there's fire, and the status quo as a smoker's lounge at LAX before a transcontinental flight. I am in grey.
Can Zion Williamson move out of New Orleans?
He could go to James Harden on the Pelicans and show up next season to act uninterested and out-of-shape, letting New Orleans management know that he was not the answer to their championship prayers, essentially a Seeking business. Of course, the Pelicans won't feel obligated to tackle their young and talented centerpiece. In that case, Zion has another threat up its sleeve, which is rare but possible.
Williamson's rookie deal expires after the 2022–23 season. Almost every talented rookie signs an extension with the team that drafted him before his first contract expired, but Zion doesn't have that. He could decline an extension during 2023–24, instead signing a one-year qualifying offer with New Orleans (think Deandre Ayton with the Sons this year), which would leave him an unrestricted free agent during the summer of 2024. Will give
One way or another, Zion Williamson will leave the small market, no-shot-with-a-title Pelicans for the bright lights. And no city shines brighter than New York.
Zion is set to play for the Knicks; Its only a matter of time.
The garden is not for most people
Last year Knicks forward Julius Randall averaged 24.1 PPG, 10.2 RPG, and 5.2 APG while shooting 41.1% from the deep as he led New York in a surprise playoff bid. The garden loved him. Fans showered Randall with heart-wrenching applause every time he stepped onto the court.
Fast forward to the 2021-22 season. Randall averaged only 18.9 PPG on 32.1% shooting from the deep during a half-defense in November, and after only a month of sub-par play, the Garden crowd began to murmur. Orange Julius continued to mix poor outside shooting with sluggish defense in December as the Knicks went 6-8, and the grumbling turned into a head-turning, cat-calling boo. As the year turned into January, you could almost see Julius Randall, eyes bulging and shoulders tense, breaking inside the walls that loved him a year earlier, his glory forgotten, turned to mush.
The Knicks almost finished with a 25–34 record, and Randall has one of the worst on/off splits in the league – 14.3 per 100 possessions which is a whiff of heckling every time he steps on the court. Night has turned into a torture session. ,
New York would do this with a player.
Very few athletes have the mental ability to play in a pressure-filled garden, but Zion Williamson is one of them. She has the attitude, personality and most importantly, the confidence to succeed in New York.
Williamson loves the spotlight. While other high school athletes were busy worrying about their upcoming algebra test, or the girl they have a crush on, or the pimple on their cheek, Zion was flying across America. During his junior year at Spartanburg, he averaged 36.8 ppg, 13.0 rpg, and 2.5 bpg, and he put up 51 points in the state title game. Nevertheless, his enormous sting transformed him from Zion Williamson to a eponymous legend, Zion. He was a regular in Sports Center's Top-10 plays before leaving for college, and as a high school student he garnered millions of views on YouTube and Twitter.
Zion never shies away from criticism, her confident smile flashing whenever someone questions her weight, conditioning, injury history, or three-point stroke. Williamson has a wart, but he's already in the public eye before he can drive. He has what it takes to face the media load of New York and the ferocity of the Madison Square Garden crowd.
New York is the Mecca of Basketball
My hometown, Los Angeles, is an amazing basketball city. Three straight final appearances and two titles during the Lakers' Kobe/Pau era, it felt like a purple and gold flag was flying out the window of one of every four cars on the road. Every time I would stand next to another vehicle waving the Lakers flag at a red light, I would look up and smile proudly at the driver as he nodded his head. Pride.
And when the news of Kobe's death spread, the whole city gasped. Our Kobe, who regularly woke up at 4:00 a.m. working his butt to fetch the LA Five title, was suddenly gone. We had a collective lump in our throats, and it was all we talked about for weeks.
Still, La La Land cannot be compared to New York. LA is very sprawling, and it's just too hot to drag everyone to their television sets for sports in the winter.
In its sheer, cool greatness, NYC is truly the Mecca of Basketball. It seems that everyone in the Big Apple follows Knicks, from bankers on Wall Street to waitresses at a local diner trying to rise to fame to musicians. Everyone loves to argue about the Knicks when they struggle, getting into a sadistic, frown, angry-eyed battle about what's making them sick this year. But, when the Knicks are winning, it really brings the city closer together. During games, the bars fill up with huge crowds coming together as one for their team. It's special.
Zion Williamson famed as a youngster who never made the playoffs could become a running highlight reel that could get New York on their united feet. Going beyond the dunk. Zion is an All-Star. He averaged 27.0 PPG, 7.2 RPG, and 3.7 APG last season as he led the young New Orleans Pelicans to a solid 29-32 record while adapting against a much tougher slate of Western Conference squads.
The mecca of basketball is vying for a real star they can rally around. It's been almost 30 years since Patrick Ewing and John Starks led the Knicks to the finals before losing to the Houston Rockets.
Almost 30 years!!!!!
Zion's confidence and New York's desperation are a perfect match, a relationship that would turn the NBA back to the Big Apple.
Zion will bring back the title at Madison Square Garden
The NBA is on Zion right now, and fans are starting to think about his commitment to the game.
Williamson has suffered from a foot problem and has not played a single match in 2021-22.
Making matters worse, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report reported back in October that Zion had weighed in at more than 300 pounds following foot surgery over the summer. And recent video footage of Williamson showing the New Orleans star looking like a six-month pregnant woman while warming up on the court before a Pelicans competition against the Knicks, belly protruding a little too far.
This kind of reaction is not new for a youngster battling body issues.
He was thin when Kevin Durant came into the league as the second overall pick. Fans and experts alike ridiculed him for his modest frame, inefficient shooting numbers and the way he was bullied on defense. Everyone wondered if he would ever lead a team to the top of the league. KD is put on muscle, two chips in his pocket, and is a future Hall of Famer.
Allen Iverson was taken number one by the Philadelphia 76ers with questions wrapped up in his 5-11, 165-pound frame. Can his body handle the day-to-day rigors of the NBA? Can he end up in an alley that is less than 6-feet high? and on and on. Iverson was short, but he hit the gym hard, making sure he was in excellent shape. He ended his career as a member of the NBA Top-75, a 17-time All-Star, and led Philadelphia to the Finals.
Nikola Jokic entered the NBA, a genius and soft-muscle center, the bud of endless fat jokes, and he stayed that way until two years ago when he decided to do something about his fitness. He dropped 25 pounds during 2019-20 and kept the weight down through the offseason, coming in excellent shape in 2020-21. He won last year's MVP award and is leading the fadeaway world to win MVP again this season, some of the best advanced stats we've ever seen.
Like Durant, Iverson, Jokic, and hundreds of other NBA players before him, Zion doesn't have the body he needs to perform at a peak level, but he'll almost certainly hit that ah-ha moment in the near future. . If he didn't get in shape anyway, he would be one of the first young All-Stars in association history to throw his career away because he couldn't say no to hamburgers and ice cream.
Good news; Zion knows she has work to do:
"I think there's one more gear I can put on when it comes to my weight and conditioning," Williamson said back in March. "But I think it's like you said, it's looking for it. Because I don't want to go to a place where I'm like, 'Yeah, I've lost a lot of weight, but I don't feel strong' . I can't do some things I used to do before. I guess it's just looking for it. I feel like I can reach another gear with respect to both weight and conditioning."
He doesn't want to lose weight just to lose weight. He wants to maintain his strength and increase his wind.
A healthy, motivated, and in-shape Zion would immediately push the Knicks into contender position behind an opening frontcourt featuring RJ Barrett, Zion Williamson, and Mitchell Robinson, who topped the Eastern Conference.
In his third season, RJ Barrett averages 18.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg, and 35.4% from the deep while the top-scoring-choice skills continue to shine. He hasn't put it all together yet, but he has the full bag, with drive to rim, off-the-dribble mid-range shots, and deep finesse. Things have been a slog in New York this season due to the struggle of Julius Randall, the injury of Derrick Rose, and the lineup mayhem of Kemba Walker, but you need to watch Barrett for just a handful of games to see the potential drip from him. Used to be.
Williamson is an unstoppable force of nature in Alley, yet he quietly collects points for someone who is running the highlight, like a young LeBron scoring 20 points before the half, so easily it felt like he had. There was more money. Zion might totally be the best player in a championship squad, a guy who sucks at least two defenders inside gravity at all times, opening the floor for his teammates to attack and get buckets.
Mitchell Robinson is one of the best defensive centers in the league. He's fighting 8.2 shots (almost all over the rim) and deflecting 1.9 balls in a night in just 25.4 minutes. He also has 44.4% of assignments off the field, which is one of the best numbers out of all NBA centers.
Barrett, Williamson and Mitchell would fit perfectly together, Robinson covered Zion's defensive shortcomings and the Pelicans' current big man opened up space for his frontcourt teammates to attack the rim.
On the backcourt, the Knicks could offer Derrick Rose and Evan Fournier, two players who complement each other, in the starting lineup. Rose is the rim slasher, and Fournier is the outside shooter.
We saw how the combination of Randall, Barrett, Robinson and Rose performed for the Knicks last year as they finished the regular season surprisingly 41-31. Imagine what New York could do to Zion instead of Randall. It will be memorable.
Zion Williamson will find his way out of New Orleans, and when he does, he should move to New York where he'll be able to help the Knicks bring their first title to what feels like an ever-present, Hall-of-Fame legacy. build at the same time.