Zion Williamson is slated to miss six-to-eight weeks with a torn meniscus in his right knee. While some have speculated that Williamson’s injury occurred because of his weight, GM David Griffin made it clear he doesn’t buy into that theory.
“The notion that this happened because Zion is in poor condition is asinine,” Griffin said of Williamson (via Andrew Lopez of ESPN.com). “He wasn’t in poor condition when he went 12 of 13 last week against Utah. That’s not what it is. He’s just a very unique body type and certainly from a physics perspective.”
Exactly when Williamson sustained the injury is unclear. He let the team know of knee discomfort in mid-October, a couple of days after the Pelicans’ preseason game against the Spurs.
The team’s medical staff is working with the No. 1 overall pick to learn more about his body, as there have been few players with Williamson’s particular type of athletic build.
“He can be 274 pounds with 8.5% body fat and he can be 280 pounds with 9% body fat,” Griffin said. “As we have gone through the process for our medical team, learning how to keep him lean and give him the core strength and stability and control he needs to handle all that torque he generates, typically that means you are going to do things to strengthen those areas.
“In this case, he gains muscle mass so fast and gains weight so fast, no one has ever dealt with anybody like him. He’s 19 and it’s going to be a learning experience for all of us.”
Williamson played in four preseason games this fall. He averaged 23.0 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 71.0% from the field.
While the team has set Williamson’s recovery timetable at six-to-eight weeks, Griffin said today that he expects the former Duke star to try to make it back sooner than that.
So basically he’s a DE running around dunking on people.
So we lose Z-Will but regain Z-A! Not sure that qualifies as a silver lining;)
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Z-Will is actually bigger & quicker than a DE… and deft of hand & mind. But connective tissues do not evolve at the same pace or time. They do their own thing, getting stretched out and put upon and in Z-Will’s case, with a new level of weight & suddenness.
He should probably give up twistiness and save awesome for endgames, for a few years at least, like Kyrie Irving, who Griffin is familiar with. Take an extra dribble & line up the bending parts. The refs will give him the call most of the time. And the Pels will miss some laurels until the hero returns… wait that’s the Cavs.
Agree. It is a whole new level of wear and tear. Additionally, Zion has probably already played a sh*t ton games in his young life. Off topic but related, I think when Tiger Woods beefed up he put more stress on his back and neck causing the injury issues that needed surgery to resolve. With Zion, we shall see but it smells like load management!
Don’t yet know if he can stay healthy. A torn meniscus, hardly the worst injury, also isn’t a nothing injury either.
The probably for Zion is that he has to retain most of his athleticism and weight in order to be Zion. If he were to lose one or the other, he wouldn’t be Zion anymore. It’s not necessarily about just being in shape, although that would obviously help.
Really, no one can predict what Zion’s future is going to be since there hasn’t been anyone like him before. With that said, to have so much weight on a relatively small frame performing explosive movements…common sense dictates that his long-term health may be less certain than it would normally be for a typical PF. You hope for the best, but nothing would surprise me tbh.
His body reminds of Karl Malone but he doesn’t play Karl’s game and Lonzo Ball ain’t no John Stockton.
Why people say he is in poor condition? As far as I can say, watching the league for the last 35 years, he is one of the top athletes I have seen, with one of the best conditionings. He have to be himself, not follow how other people are.
Yeah, I don’t think its conditioning, its just whether his bones and joints can handle the acceleration and deceleration of a nearly 300 pound body.
He seems like a good kid, but I could easily see him turning out like a shorter Yao or Greg Oden.
really hate to see this happen. he is such a good kid & a great asset for the NBA. shooting 71 percent is crazy good. it is never easy to come back from a knee injury ( I know from experience ) it is a slow process and to comeback 100 percent is nearly impossible. the fact that he is just 19 & with many people helping him will increase his chances to come back 100 percent
For some reason I feel like we’ll be talking about him in 5 years…..
about how good he was – and coulda been.