Even if it turns out he's absolutely innocent of any legal wrongdoing, do we really want Zion Williamson draining Houston's strategic BBQ and Tex-Mex reserves?
And you're also fine with giving up major assets for a guy who averages about 36 games a season? In his six years, he's played in 214 games and missed 278. That's insane. Are Embiid and Kawhi available? Hell, maybe Brandon Roy and Greg Oden are ready to come out of retirement.
Flashback to the good ole days when I was allowed to post. Like Pete Rose, maybe the mods will reinstate me at some point . Just a crazy thought…..why not trade Jalen Green, Landale, and Tate for Zion. Low risk/high result opportunity.
AD 2.0 Embiid 2.0 HEY! Let's get EMBIID/AD injury risk with Jah Morant/Anthony Edwards social problems Nah . . .Pass Rocket River
I wasn't against rolling the dice on Zion before the lawsuit but at a really low price, like here's cam whitmore, a player we barely use, and here's a future heavily protected pick. Have fun. Now though that price is pretty low. I do think there are teams that will be desperate enough to give the Pelicans something. Doubt it would be the Rockets, at this point. Before the case, sure, now though I think it's just way too many red flags. Before, you could just say the MFer was lazy and maybe a hard coach like Ime and the sting of being divorced might motivate him back into shape...but when you look at his personal life it's much more likely that he's just, as @Nook says, a POS, and he's set on wasting his talent and NBA career and we don't need that on our team. I've been saying this whole offseason, we're not a desperate team, so we don't have to make desperate moves like this.
This team is too good to be taking as big a gamble as Zion would be. If the injury bug comes back it's a ridiculously huge hamper to have a guy taking up over 25% of your total cap space but only playing 25% of the games. We could absolutely close any championship window we have by doing that because a chunk of the money we could have been using to get us over the edge would be going to a guy not even playing If we were the team of 3-4 years ago, bottom of the league with no one on the roster yet worth paying a bunch of money to and no clear stars, then yes, take the shot. But not when you were just #2 in the league. Someone like the Wizards, Jazz, Blazers, teams like that who are looking to rebuild should be the ones taking a shot on Zion and his talent. Not us. It's not just the asset price (although that part sucks too). It's the salary cap cost. Under the current CBA if you want a window to actually last you have to be incredibly strategic about how you spend your money. Zion has proven to be WAY to big of an injury risk to commit $130 over the next three years to him, three years where we will be having to make decisions about extensions
You understated it, it's actually: "Hey lets get Embiid/AD injury risk, worse than Ja Morant or KPJ social problems, worse weight problems than Shaq with no actual dominance as a trade off, laziest player probably ever." Zion would be the biggest mistake we could ever make. Of course DD's on his side, definitely his kind of player.
No it isn't, we aren't even close to being a contender, we are a TRY HARDER - CLAP CLAP - team that plays hard in the regulars season, which will wear off soon BTW - and we lack offensive firepower. Zion is better than anyone on our roster, trade Green and his weak minded self for him and throw in 2 picks and we are good. DD
It is astonishing to me that DD keeps pushing for Zion after being a regular poster here all throughout the T-Mac/Yao years Haven't you had your fill of wasted seasons relying on injury-plagued stars @DaDakota ? I know I have. I understand thinking "okay if the price is low what could it hurt"? Here's what: Zion is a guy you have to build your team around. He needs 3nD players all around him to make up for his lack of shooting and lack of defense. You can't put him on a team where the two best players are Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun. It just doesn't work. You commit to building your roster around him or you don't acquire him at all. If the price is low, maybe ask yourself why New Orleans is so willing to dump him.
I want talent, life is about risk - we aren't good enough - Zion makes us better - if he is cleared of this lawsuit, then yes, I would make a run at a guy who is all world talent, and is a penny stock price. I honestly don't trust social media at all, hell.....if the Rockets wanted to bring KPJ back at a discount, I would be ok with that - ALL I CARE ABOUT is talent on the court...... DD
On the surface Williamson seems to be easily gettable. That is why.....for cheap why not......just not a fan of his. Seems weird he never developed a steady 3 pointer. Dyson Daniels, Tre Murphy, Yves Missi appear to be the new gems on NOLA. Dyson obviously left, traded.
I heard that Zion seems to always get injured off the court, not during the game. Which leads me to believe, he’s not really injured. It’s a motivation and effort issue. He really hates having to play in New Orleans.
Honestly, it's beyond risk at this point, I'd say it's all but guaranteed that he will miss extensive time with injuries, and very unlikely he'll ever be 100% throughout the playoffs. Maybe if he were an MVP-caliber player when on the floor I would consider it, but he's not anywhere close to that. I don't think he can be the #1 option on a contending team even if he magically corrects his health problems (which he won't). Even Sengun is more likely to be the best player on a championship team than Zion is right now--let alone Amen, who is going to have a better career than both, I think. If we want an injury-prone max player, get me Lauri Markkanen instead. His talent level as a scorer isn't far behind Zion's when fully healthy, IMO, but he can be plugged in and out of the roster any time because he's a great jump shooter (when healthy) and great at playing off the ball. You don't have to build around him, he can play with any lineup.
Zion and Jalen Green would be hilarious on the team, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Iron Man and Glass Man.
There's a massive difference between blindly acquiring talent just because it's available vs intelligently building a team.
The injury. And the big contract is a concern with the tighter apron rules nowadays It's a pass on Zion.
