RealGM

Zion Williamson is experiencing soreness in his surgically repaired right foot, which is causing a delay in his rehab.

The New Orleans Pelicans are optimistic the setback is not serious but will ramp up Williamson's rehab in approximately one week.

Williamson has been out all season following offseason surgery on his foot.

Via RealGM Staff Report

If they're smart, this is a tank move. Get Zion back into shape slowly, tank this season away. Get a top 5 pick to pair with Zion, Ingram and JV next year. Then again it's the Pelicans. Probably gonna rush him back ASAP to play him at 315lb on a bad foot.

The Fat Tank

What was the setback? Did he eat too many pizzas again?

He told the team he ate XL pizza for lunch. What he didn't tell them was that those were roman numerals.

PT416 wrote:If they're smart, this is a tank move. Get Zion back into shape slowly, tank this season away. Get a top 5 pick to pair with Zion, Ingram and JV next year. Then again it's the Pelicans. Probably gonna rush him back ASAP to play him at 315lb on a bad foot.

smart man. this is exactly what they should do.

It should go onto the news only if there is no setback

ebrian wrote:What was the setback? Did he eat too many pizzas again?

He told the team he ate XL pizza for lunch. What he didn't tell them was that those were roman numerals.

On a serious note...

Have to say that in a recent interview and set of commercials, Zion looks even bigger (and I don't mean taller or more muscular) than he's ever been. And the concerns about his weight may not be unfounded considering the setback which, when you connect the dots and consider that the foot bears the entire weight of the body that the setup cold be weight related.

Damn, this dude is perpetually injured. So glad the Knicks avoided this disaster.

PT416 wrote:If they're smart, this is a tank move. Get Zion back into shape slowly, tank this season away. Get a top 5 pick to pair with Zion, Ingram and JV next year. Then again it's the Pelicans. Probably gonna rush him back ASAP to play him at 315lb on a bad foot.

If that's true, then **** the stupid Pelicans. They don't deserve it. They already pulled that crap with Anthony Davis and then lucked into that #1 overall that they didn't deserve. I'm glad that karma is coming back to haunt them. Maybe they will save some other team from drafting a bust in next year's draft as well.

Barcs wrote:Damn, this dude is perpetually injured. So glad the Knicks avoided this disaster.

I'll take the 5% chance Zion gets healthy over RJ Barretts ceiling of Billy Owens.

Turns out the very delicate bones and ligaments in our feet aren't designed to launch sumo wrestlers 4 feet in the air and absorb the impact landing

The big question around Zion when he was drafted was whether or not he could stay healthy.

Until he proves it for some extended period of time, you're holding your breath every game. Some guys overcome it, look at Joel Embiid, whom looked like a complete disaster through a few years medically but has been reasonably healthy since. Some guys don't.

Hope the best for Zion, but it's got to be frustrating having a guy that can't stay on the floor as your franchise player. Zion also doesn't seem to be too serious about his conditioning, nor does he seem to have all that great an attitude.

dougthonus wrote:The big question around Zion when he was drafted was whether or not he could stay healthy.

Until he proves it for some extended period of time, you're holding your breath every game. Some guys overcome it, look at Joel Embiid, whom looked like a complete disaster through a few years medically but has been reasonably healthy since. Some guys don't.

Hope the best for Zion, but it's got to be frustrating having a guy that can't stay on the floor as your franchise player. Zion also doesn't seem to be too serious about his conditioning, nor does he seem to have all that great an attitude.

Zion needed a Gary Payton/Moses Malone type of personality to go after him and chew him out. I'll never forget the story of Moses chewing out Barkley and reducing him to tears by calling him a fat ass straight to his face and over the course of his rookie year got Barkley to go down from 300 to 250 pounds. Shawn Kemp apparently was worried about Payton chewing him out and the glove was known for his mouth and would've had a field day roasting him. It's no coincidence once Kemp left Seattle it all went downhill.

It's pathetic that Zion's conditioning makes Charles Barkley look like Karl Malone out there. Pelicans should've taken off the kiddie gloves and demanded he get his crap together and if he didn't you fine the hell out of him for not holding his end of the bargain. The fact that people got fired b/c of him is disgusting but sadly I don't think it'll get through to him. If NOLA is smart, don't extend him and make him earn the next deal as it's proven he can't stay healthy and can't be bothered to show up to camp in shape.

slicedbread2 wrote:Zion needed a Gary Payton/Moses Malone type of personality to go after him and chew him out. I'll never forget the story of Moses chewing out Barkley and reducing him to tears by calling him a fat ass straight to his face and over the course of his rookie year got Barkley to go down from 300 to 250 pounds. Shawn Kemp apparently was worried about Payton chewing him out and the glove was known for his mouth and would've had a field day roasting him. It's no coincidence once Kemp left Seattle it all went downhill.

May have helped if there was a star level player that he legitimately looked up to willing to ride him and pressure him, anything less than that probably wouldn't have helped though.

It's pathetic that Zion's conditioning makes Charles Barkley look like Karl Malone out there. Pelicans should've taken off the kiddie gloves and demanded he get his crap together and if he didn't you fine the hell out of him for not holding his end of the bargain. The fact that people got fired b/c of him is disgusting but sadly I don't think it'll get through to him. If NOLA is smart, don't extend him and make him earn the next deal as it's proven he can't stay healthy and can't be bothered to show up to camp in shape.

Think you're vastly miscalculating the balance of power between a potential superstar and a struggling franchise that can't get anyone to stay there.

Either way, what has happened hasn't been great, but trying to be a hard ass and fine him and bully him probably wouldn't be a long term solution.

dougthonus wrote:

slicedbread2 wrote:Zion needed a Gary Payton/Moses Malone type of personality to go after him and chew him out. I'll never forget the story of Moses chewing out Barkley and reducing him to tears by calling him a fat ass straight to his face and over the course of his rookie year got Barkley to go down from 300 to 250 pounds. Shawn Kemp apparently was worried about Payton chewing him out and the glove was known for his mouth and would've had a field day roasting him. It's no coincidence once Kemp left Seattle it all went downhill.

May have helped if there was a star level player that he legitimately looked up to willing to ride him and pressure him, anything less than that probably wouldn't have helped though.

It's pathetic that Zion's conditioning makes Charles Barkley look like Karl Malone out there. Pelicans should've taken off the kiddie gloves and demanded he get his crap together and if he didn't you fine the hell out of him for not holding his end of the bargain. The fact that people got fired b/c of him is disgusting but sadly I don't think it'll get through to him. If NOLA is smart, don't extend him and make him earn the next deal as it's proven he can't stay healthy and can't be bothered to show up to camp in shape.

Think you're vastly miscalculating the balance of power between a potential superstar and a struggling franchise that can't get anyone to stay there.

Either way, what has happened hasn't been great, but trying to be a hard ass and fine him and bully him probably wouldn't be a long term solution.

Yea that's a good point almost forgot about the possibility that he could go AWOL and nuke his value. It's still disappointing that Zion couldn't at least keep it together till he got that 2nd contract. I'll never forget how he got baited by the media about New York and man it's really gonna be crazy to see what will happen.

I always wondered if the Pelicans could've found a way to have gotten Barrett in the draft it may have helped Zion considering those 2 went to Duke together and are close friends. I dunno but it really is sad to see a talented player being his own worse enemy.

slicedbread2 wrote:Yea that's a good point almost forgot about the possibility that he could go AWOL and nuke his value. It's still disappointing that Zion couldn't at least keep it together till he got that 2nd contract. I'll never forget how he got baited by the media about New York and man it's really gonna be crazy to see what will happen.

I always wondered if the Pelicans could've found a way to have gotten Barrett in the draft it may have helped Zion considering those 2 went to Duke together and are close friends. I dunno but it really is sad to see a talented player being his own worse enemy.

I'm not a Pelicans fan, so I'm not following it closely. I'm curious how much of his issues are related to things under his control and how much are not. Clearly he needs to do a better job of maintaining his weight, but he has a weird bone structure too and I'm not sure all of his injuries are related to conditioning.

Either way, feels like a good chance that he goes down as one of those big "what if" stories rather than as a superstar.

PT416 wrote:If they're smart, this is a tank move. Get Zion back into shape slowly, tank this season away. Get a top 5 pick to pair with Zion, Ingram and JV next year. Then again it's the Pelicans. Probably gonna rush him back ASAP to play him at 315lb on a bad foot.

Every season is a tank for the Pelicans.

Big, fat Greg Oden.

NBA's version of JaMarcus Russell lol

I hate saying this...but as talented and strong Zion is...he has ALWAYS looked like he was an injury waiting to happen. You see a guy holding that much extra weight for his height...it's just not good for longevity of one's career.

He looks pudgy as he almost waddles around the court. Charles Barkley to my memory never looked pudgy.