Gilbert Arenas gives his opinion on Zion Williamson

[johanliebert]

Gil isn't an idiot... But he's certainly not an authority I'd turn to when it comes to basketball analysis. Gil is an attention seeker who often likes to mouth off as a way to get shock value views...

he wasnt an attention seeker in that clip. all they did was break down the aau game as the brother beside him is a trainer.

yes a former nba player..a pro is an authority you should turn to.

another thing is i remember gil being quiet on the court for much of his career..it wasnt until the hibachi thing did he put words behind his play before that he was just a straight assassin who rarely celebrated on the court.

some of yall should watch the clip before commenting tbh.

[Biff]

He won't play at the 3. He'll be like the All Star version of Paul Millsap, a face-up PF, by his 2nd year. He just needs to tighten his handle a bit.

Or maybe Shawn Marion (but obviously way bigger and stronger and even more athletic). If Zion never became a good playmaker or great shooter, he would still be an all-star. Marion was never a playmaker and was a very average shooter and still carved out quite the niche for himself. Even if Zion just improved upon the tools/skills he has now he would end up being a much better player than Marion.

[johanliebert]

He won't play at the 3. He'll be like the All Star version of Paul Millsap, a face-up PF, by his 2nd year. He just needs to tighten his handle a bit.

milsapp has a 7 foot wingspan it allows him to play bigger. anybody compared to zion in here such as draymond or milsapp have long wingspans.

[Johnny Bball]

Can he run the offense like Draymond Green? I mean if he can handle the ball and be a 10X better finisher than Green, that is already an all star.

You're not asking him to be a playmaker, he's not that kind of player. He's going to get rebounds, putbacks, be a menace in the open court, and play bully ball while in playing in a more spaced offense.

If he's not a playmaker, then he's not a superstar.

He can be a beast on the offensive glass and score in transition but both of those mean sacrificing defense which not every team will do. There's a few real quick guys in the NBA that do that very well.

Post-ups are one of the least efficient plays in the NBA. He's not going to be a star playing bully ball. He will be a star by having a face up game, great handle, passing skills and being quicker than guys his size. Get to the rim and drive and dish. All those can come, but they aren't there immediately. And I don't believe he's insanely quicker than all the guys his "Height" (include his reach and his vertical so). You need someone 6-8 or 6-9 maybe to guard him, but those exist on every team, and they are plenty quick. He's quicker than guys his weight but...

His weight isn't going to be the amazing positive factor that people think and I think he ends up far lighter and at 250 to play.

I dunno. I've never understood how people assume he would be as good as James (or close). It takes much more than talent and takes different personality traits to be as good as James. Which nobody here really knows about him.

[MrSparkle]

I think he’ll be a fine 4. He does need to work on his shot. A lot. I also think there’s good reason to suspect disappointment at the nba level. Gonna really depend where he goes. NYK or CHI, pressure will be high and there will be no PG to make his life easy.

ATL, DAL, SAC, MEM... running with their playmakers, he’s gonna be Marion meets Dray meets Blake.

[Duke4life831]

He has same height as Hardaway jr , Booker or Derozan

Guys like Justise Winslow, Draymond, PJ Tucker and more are all the same size if not shorter than Zion and they have handled playing the 4 with no problems. None of them are nearly as strong or explosive as Zion.

Utah Jazz 2nd most used lineup is Gobert/Crowder/Ingles/Mitchell/Rubio. Where is the 4 in that lineup that makes Zion undersized? Can Zion not handle the likes of Paul Milsap? Can he not handle Jayson Tatum or Aminu? What about Harrison Barnes or Luka Doncic? Zion at the 4 in today's NBA really shouldn't be an issue at all.

Winslow played on pg position more than half of the season , PJ and Draymond are better defenders and they are good three point shooters ( Draymond was until this year and you see how his game dropped bc of that ), Draymond is better passer too so they have extra skills that make them good on that position.

He can't handle Milsap bc he is great defender who defends a lot of centers in a very good way and makes Jokic much less negative on defense, on offense is good on post and from distance, Aminu is great rebounder and defender and on offense he can shoot 3's , Barnes is bigger and he is 3 and D player, Doncic has better BBIQ, better playmaking abillity , better handles and is a better shooter and Tatum is also better shooter, has better handles and can get his shot and don't need someone to spoonfeed him . All of them have extra skills that help them to play as sf's and pf's. Crowder is good defender but he playable only on certain systems bc we saw that he wasn't good defender on Cavs as he is on Jazz and Celtics. Reason why i mentioned his size is that people think that he can play same as Lebron or Giannis but both of them are much taller than him .

Up until this year, Winslow played a ton at the 4. Draymond has had 1 season of being a good 3pt shooter, either than that he has always been a poor 3pt shooter. Draymond also didn't make any 3pt shots in his freshman year and only had 2 makes after his sophomore year. Same goes for PJ Tucker who only made 2 3s in his 3 years in college. When it comes to defense, Zion was 3rd in voting for ACC defensive player of the year and was 1st team all defense in the ACC this year. Draymond didn't make an all defensive team until his senior year.

Now when it comes to the other guys. Are you saying Zion won't be able to handle a guy like Harrison Barnes, or Jayson Tatum? Again Im strictly speaking size here. Is Harrison Barnes and Tatum too big for Zion? All the other stuff you say for these guys which allows them to play the 4. You can say a lot of the same things for Zion. Zion is as good as a defender as any of these guys at the same age. Zion is as good as a rebounder as anyone listed here not named Paul Milsap at the same age. Tatum shot 34% from 3 at Duke, Zion shot 34% from 3 at Duke.

But again my point is, if Zion gets matched up with any of these guys, he is not going to be at a massive physical disadvantage. Aminu weighs 210 pounds soaking wet. The idea that 4s like Tatum/Barnes/Milsap/Aminu/Crowder/Ingles/Green/Tucker/Winslow and so on are going to overmatch Zion physically just makes 0 sense to me. I agree 100% that Zion needs to improve his perimeter skills, Ive said that many times. But its not like he has 0 perimeter skills.

[dantas]

I dont think any player of this draft class will be better than doncic and trae

[Tomjas]

Stating the obvious

He’s 18 with time to grow & develop his skills

As it stands, I don’t see the Blake comparisons as Griffin has 2-3 inches on him

[Duke4life831]

All have way longer wingspans than Zion. Zion is undersized for a 3, about average size for a 2.

Winslow has a shorter wingspan. The inch Tucker has on him, Im more than sure Zions strength and explosiveness makes up for that. The vast majority of 4s in today's NBA are perimeter players. The majority of them are not down low banging.

Winslow is small like Zion my bad. Tucker isn't the though. No way Zion has a 6-11 wingspan or a standing reach anywhere near Tucker's. People forget wide built people like Zion have large wingspans but low standing reaches. If he hits a 8-7 standing reach I'd astonished. Meanwhile Dray and PJ have standing reaches well above the average SF (and in Dray's case above the average PF).

Zion's saving grace is that he can play extremely well on the perimeter offensively and guard the perimeter defensively. There's no need to act like he wouldn't immediately be the smallest (height/standing reach wise) PF in the league and possibly league history (relative to league average).

Is he really any different than Charles Barkley though? I can't see anything that has Barkley's official wingspan, but most places I see people listing it at 6'10-6'11. And again Barkley played in a time when 4s were true Power Forwards and were banging down low and were much more physically imposing compared to today's NBA. So even if Barkley's wingspan was an inch or 2 longer, I think with today being much more perimeter oriented, it cancels out the difference. And Barkley had 0 issues with his size.

[Illmatic12]

Winslow has a shorter wingspan. The inch Tucker has on him, Im more than sure Zions strength and explosiveness makes up for that. The vast majority of 4s in today's NBA are perimeter players. The majority of them are not down low banging.

Winslow is small like Zion my bad. Tucker isn't the though. No way Zion has a 6-11 wingspan or a standing reach anywhere near Tucker's. People forget wide built people like Zion have large wingspans but low standing reaches. If he hits a 8-7 standing reach I'd astonished. Meanwhile Dray and PJ have standing reaches well above the average SF (and in Dray's case above the average PF).

Zion's saving grace is that he can play extremely well on the perimeter offensively and guard the perimeter defensively. There's no need to act like he wouldn't immediately be the smallest (height/standing reach wise) PF in the league and possibly league history (relative to league average).

Is he really any different than Charles Barkley though? I can't see anything that has Barkley's official wingspan, but most places I see people listing it at 6'10-6'11. And again Barkley played in a time when 4s were true Power Forwards and were banging down low and were much more physically imposing compared to today's NBA. So even if Barkley's wingspan was an inch or 2 longer, I think with today being much more perimeter oriented, it cancels out the difference. And Barkley had 0 issues with his size.

Admittedly I cant prove it , but just visually Barkley clearly looks to have a 7+ wingspan . His arms are so long they’re almost goofy looking and unproportional. It was a major advantage in helping him extend and finish around the rim





If you look back, most of these undersized 4s like Draymond, Barkley, Shawn Marion, Millsap etc had freakishly unproportional wingspans to go with their athleticism. Zion’s wingspan is pretty ordinary and in line with his height (not even where Julius Randle was at 6’11) so it’ll be interesting to see how that impacts his game on the margins.

[Clyde Frazier]

While I don't really agree with Arenas, I'd love to see him on a studio show. Gets his point across smoothly yet direct.

If we have to focus on him developing a post game, I can see it being a cross between blake and lebron. A little helter skelter (blake) and just backing guys down with sheer force (lebron). I'm not sure why that has to be a big part of his game, though... it's not like we're to assume he's going to be playing 1 on 5 for his entire prime.

[Mbrahv0528]

He's completely right. The NCAA Tournament actually killed the hype because he wasn't getting those highlights he got in the regular season. UCF, Virignia State and Michigan State exposed his lack of IQ, skill and versatility outside of athleticism.

This is just..wrong. Hilariously wrong.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[316Hornets]

Winslow is small like Zion my bad. Tucker isn't the though. No way Zion has a 6-11 wingspan or a standing reach anywhere near Tucker's. People forget wide built people like Zion have large wingspans but low standing reaches. If he hits a 8-7 standing reach I'd astonished. Meanwhile Dray and PJ have standing reaches well above the average SF (and in Dray's case above the average PF).

Zion's saving grace is that he can play extremely well on the perimeter offensively and guard the perimeter defensively. There's no need to act like he wouldn't immediately be the smallest (height/standing reach wise) PF in the league and possibly league history (relative to league average).

Is he really any different than Charles Barkley though? I can't see anything that has Barkley's official wingspan, but most places I see people listing it at 6'10-6'11. And again Barkley played in a time when 4s were true Power Forwards and were banging down low and were much more physically imposing compared to today's NBA. So even if Barkley's wingspan was an inch or 2 longer, I think with today being much more perimeter oriented, it cancels out the difference. And Barkley had 0 issues with his size.

Admittedly I cant prove it , but just visually Barkley clearly looks to have a 7+ wingspan . His arms are so long they’re almost goofy looking and unproportional. It was a major advantage in helping him extend and finish around the rim





If you look back, most of these undersized 4s like Draymond, Barkley, Shawn Marion, Millsap etc had freakishly unproportional wingspans to go with their athleticism. Zion’s wingspan is pretty ordinary and in line with his height (not even where Julius Randle was at 6’11) so it’ll be interesting to see how that impacts his game on the margins.

But what about Zion's vertical? It's freakish and you think it'll be easy to get by him in the post? It's going to be like running into a brick wall for some of the guys in the NBA.

[Pachinko_]

The NBA is a collection of the longest freakiest athletes in the world, if they can pack the paint on Giannis they can definitely pack it on Zion too. If he's going to be a high usage guy he needs to be in a team of floor spacers or become an efficient shooter himself to be really good. That's what it comes down to with him IMO.

[thebigbird]

The game Sunday was the first time I've watched Zion. He's a good player and I expect him to be an all-star for years to come, but I felt a little underwhelmed. Probably because of all the hype. He just bullies opposing players and reminds me of a bull in a china shop. His game needs some polish. The hype really is a disservice to him because anything other than top 3-5 player in the world will be seen as a disappointment.

[Duke4life831]

The game Sunday was the first time I've watched Zion. He's a good player and I expect him to be an all-star for years to come, but I felt a little underwhelmed. Probably because of all the hype. He just bullies opposing players and reminds me of a bull in a china shop. His game needs some polish. The hype really is a disservice to him because anything other than top 3-5 player in the world will be seen as a disappointment.

Shouldn't the hype be that high though? Find me a freshman that had a more dominant season in college basketball in the last few decades. He is also a freak of nature when it comes to strength and athleticism. When you combine that at the age of 18. You're usually talking about a once in a couple decades kind of prospect. I think guys like that should have pretty high expectations.

[Tomjas]

The game Sunday was the first time I've watched Zion. He's a good player and I expect him to be an all-star for years to come, but I felt a little underwhelmed. Probably because of all the hype. He just bullies opposing players and reminds me of a bull in a china shop. His game needs some polish. The hype really is a disservice to him because anything other than top 3-5 player in the world will be seen as a disappointment.

Shouldn't the hype be that high though? Find me a freshman that had a more dominant season in college basketball in the last few decades. He is also a freak of nature when it comes to strength and athleticism. When you combine that at the age of 18. You're usually talking about a once in a couple decades kind of prospect. I think guys like that should have pretty high expectations.

You can’t teach height

Guys like Giannis, Simmons are equally as good athletes (at least) and much bigger

Expectations need to be tempered IMO

[316Hornets]

The game Sunday was the first time I've watched Zion. He's a good player and I expect him to be an all-star for years to come, but I felt a little underwhelmed. Probably because of all the hype. He just bullies opposing players and reminds me of a bull in a china shop. His game needs some polish. The hype really is a disservice to him because anything other than top 3-5 player in the world will be seen as a disappointment.

Shouldn't the hype be that high though? Find me a freshman that had a more dominant season in college basketball in the last few decades. He is also a freak of nature when it comes to strength and athleticism. When you combine that at the age of 18. You're usually talking about a once in a couple decades kind of prospect. I think guys like that should have pretty high expectations.

You can’t teach height

Guys like Giannis, Simmons are equally as good athletes (at least) and much bigger

Expectations need to be tempered IMO

Can't teach playing with a big body either. Guy holds his weight as well as Shaq.

[og15]

He's in the 99th percentile for Post scoring on high usage. The **** is he talking about

I don’t think you understood his point. Sure he can post up effectively against far inferior athletes. He doesn’t have to use much post skill or work hard to establish position or score. The question is does he have the post skill to score on NBA size and athleticism

The same thing was said about Griffin, questioning if he could handle bigger NBA guys and play the same bully ball in the NBA. He certainly was able to. Early on he did struggle against good taller, longer defenders because his perimeter game was more limited and they could just play off him, but he could still bully most guys. That was a league that played bigger in general than it does today. Today a lot of teams will play at least half the game with a guy at PF who is shorter and definitely lighter than Zion.

Even a guy like Faried who is all motor, and Zion definitely also has the motor too, but then more athleticism, size and skill, Faried as a rookie was able to put up 10/8/59% FG in 23 mpg.

I don't think the idea that he won't be able to still bully guys and get his around the basket holds up.

[Duke4life831]

The game Sunday was the first time I've watched Zion. He's a good player and I expect him to be an all-star for years to come, but I felt a little underwhelmed. Probably because of all the hype. He just bullies opposing players and reminds me of a bull in a china shop. His game needs some polish. The hype really is a disservice to him because anything other than top 3-5 player in the world will be seen as a disappointment.

Shouldn't the hype be that high though? Find me a freshman that had a more dominant season in college basketball in the last few decades. He is also a freak of nature when it comes to strength and athleticism. When you combine that at the age of 18. You're usually talking about a once in a couple decades kind of prospect. I think guys like that should have pretty high expectations.

You can’t teach height

Guys like Giannis, Simmons are equally as good athletes (at least) and much bigger

Expectations need to be tempered IMO

Simmons and Giannis are not equal to Zion when it comes to athleticism. Zion has the advantage in strength and athleticism.