Brian Windhorst:Zion Williamson is ‘not close’ to returning

[levon]

He's played 38% of his possible games thus far. As others have said, hope this is an Embiid/Blake Griffin start to a long career. Can't help but wonder if this is going to be more common for phenoms as we scout even more and more radical body types like Chet Holmgren, Wemby, etc. We're really pushing the limits of how many games guys these guys can play high intensity basketball as is.

[nikster]

When he got that Injury I figured there was a chance he misses the season. What a shame, Pels were looking so good

[Memories]

Might as well just sit him out the rest of the season and tank for a better chance at Wemby.

[zimpy27]

Makes Davis look like an iron man

[Mr Peanut]

Sucks, he's such a talented player when healthy and NOP were rolling and in the contenders conversation earlier in the season. Have to wonder at what stage they cut their losses and accept he'll never be a consistent contributor.

[Zespetjest]

Even Greg Oden was healthier than Zion

[Mickey8]

He has to avoid falling on his butt until his career is done.

[165bows]

Sucks, he's such a talented player when healthy and NOP were rolling and in the contenders conversation earlier in the season. Have to wonder at what stage they cut their losses and accept he'll never be a consistent contributor.

What would a trade look like there? Pretty extreme boom or bust scenario.

[Dr Aki]

Stick a fork in them

[NO-KG-AI]

Idk how true it is from Windy, but… another Pels fan said:

“ Even without Zion, the amount of injuries and extensive rehab times from them that occur under this medical/training staff are too much to ignore.”

And it’s so true. I thought the new medical facility and bringing in Aaron Nelson would help, but it seems to have gotten even worse than the AD days. Every injury on our team takes twice as long to recover from as everyone else. Idk if it’s poor rehab regimens, being way overly cautious, or some combo of both.

[xb3at band1tx]

Basically confirmed, he's 2 weeks away from being 2 weeks.

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[Duke4life831]

This is just very reminiscint of last year and his foot. He was supposed to be ready to go by season opener. Then it got pushed back to mid December, then it got pushed back again, then finally he was done for the year.

This time he injures it on Jan 2nd and they say he is out for 3 weeks. Then they push it back to the All star break. Then its a couple weeks passed the all star break. Now its been a couple weeks passed the All star break, its at least 2 more weeks. Ya just like last year, I expect to see the "Zion is out for the rest of the year" update within the next couple weeks.

And Im at the point where Im not sure what is the bigger red flag. Zion continually getting lower body injuries, or the fact when he gets them his body seems to have a really hard to healing.

[D.Brasco]

Pretty sad, Zion was supposed to the next line of generational dominant freak athletes, Wilt, Jordan, Shaq, LeBron but he's on track to miss more games than Shaq did in his 19 year career. Being a freak athlete and being durable is an outlier trait it seems.

[Cavsfansince84]

I feel like Zion has one more chance to rehabilitate and get the weight off for good in terms of having a productive career. If he comes in at 300+ again next year or has another significant injury I think that's probably it in terms of him becoming a legit top 10 player that can give a team 70+ games. I'm still rooting for him to do it.

[Mr Loggins]

It's Windhorst...

guy played point guard in the NBA
for 12 season. he knows what hes talking about

Did someone mess up? He was born in 1978, must be a generational talent start nba at age of 9. he and Jokic may have similar look at middle school age

no, i believe everything is accurate

[The Laker Kid]

But is he close to returning to the fridge?

[GopherIt!]

He only had a double double yesterday. That’s progress.

Spoiler:

[BigGargamel]

Sucks man. Might be time to give up on the guy. I called him Larry Johnson, I guess in more ways than one. Johnson couldn't stay healthy at all either. Time for Zion to learn to shoot the three I suppose.

[KingFox]

What should they do if this keeps happening? I don't think he'll retire but they can't exactly trade him either. Just super unfortunate for everyone including NBA fans

[RHODEY]

He slimmed down back to under 290 lbs I suppose. Should he maybe think about losing even more weight? Could that help reduce the stress on his body/injury risk? I guess even at 265lbs he would probably overpower 99% of his defenders.

forget slimming down to 265, he should be slimming down to 245 even if it means sacrificing his "gift" and being a more modestly talented player. he should have a long conversation with Shaun Livingston - not just about basketball, but about life in general. I imagine Shaun had a really great time in the last 5+ years of his career just being out there, playing, with his teammates. Doesn't Zion want that? I'd rather be a modestly-successful "starter quality" PF averaging 16 and 8 and playing until I'm 34 then be a superstar who only plays 35 games a year until I'm 26 then can't even find a team to take me because i can't pass a physical.

The funny thing is - I think he should be thinking 225 - it’s not like he is going to lose muscle as he shrinks like a power lifter would. The goal of his muscle to propel him into the air, run and shift…. The more weight he loses the better off he will be in the long run. The muscle he built over the years that makes him so amazing won’t leave him if he does this right

Losing large amounts of weight doesn't work like that. If you are dropping 70lbs some of it is going to be muscle. That said I think Zion could get to Charles Barkley weight -250lbs and still dominate.