Welcome to NBA Hater Report: An analysis of some of the players, teams and league trends that are drawing the ire of yours truly. If you are not pessimistic, proceed with caution.
Zion and the Pelicans need a divorce
The New Orleans Pelicans are getting agonizingly close to the “time to trade Zion Williamson” line, as bitter a pill as it would be to swallow. This guy, for all his talent, is just not someone to build your franchise around.
Maybe you can excuse the injuries – although Zion has surely exacerbated his own health issues due to his inability to stay in shape – but at least he could show up on time when he actually has to. ‘occasion. play.
No. Apparently, that’s also too much to ask. After missing 27 games with another hamstring issue, Zion showed up late for a team flight and was suspended for New Orleans’ victory against Philadelphia last Friday. It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first time Zion has been handed a late mistake.
Chris Haynes reported that Williamson showed up late to several practices throughout the season; indeed, Pelicans coach Willie Green confirmed that “several occasions which led to (Williamson’s suspension)”.
Zion needs to grow, plain and simple. Or the Pelicans need to accept that he won’t and cut bait. In his five seasons with the Pelicans, Williamson only managed to play in 192 of a possible 483 games. Still, the team gave him nearly $200 million hoping that availability would, at some point, match his physical capabilities. This is not the case.
Zion’s 70-game season last year ended with an injury that ended New Orleans’ season in the first round. He has only played eight games this season. Williamson plays basketball as often as a middle-aged father trying to do light cardio at the YMCA a few times a month, and yet on the rare occasions when he is healthy and available to play, he cannot not worry about it. himself to arrive on time.
Maybe he’s trying to play, or not play, get out of New Orleans. Maybe he’s just immature. Maybe it’s a combination of both. Regardless, the Zion experiment has just run its course in New Orleans.
It’s tough, because the Pelicans have no way of recouping the kind of talent that Williamson offers (can they even get much more than a future pick and filler salary?). and there’s still a reasonable world in which he goes somewhere else and develops into the kind of consistent superstar the Pelicans are betting everything on being for them. But at some point, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is, by definition, insanity. It’s foolish to think the Williamson/Pelicans duo will be anything but disappointing.
The Warriors are a lottery team
I remember going to Beyond the Arc Podcast with our CBS Sports NBA insider Bill Reiter about six weeks ago and was talking about the Warriors as a legitimate title contender. Things have changed.
The Warrrios, as of Tuesday, occupy 12th place in the Western Conference. They have lost 18 of their last 25 games and are now under .500 for the season at 19-20. Should they make a major deal at the deadline to shake things up and try to succeed this season? Superstar Stephen Curry doesn’t think so.
“Desperate trades or desperate moves that exhaust the future, there is a responsibility to allow or keep the franchise in a good space and a good place when it comes to where we leave this thing when we we’re done,” Curry said. via ESPN. “That doesn’t mean you’re not trying to improve. It doesn’t mean you’re not active in any type of search for – if you have an opportunity where a trade makes sense or even in the summer for free free agency (the move) makes sense You want to keep improving.
There’s more on Curry giving the Warriors his blessing to hold on at the deadline here.
Let’s keep it very simple: Jimmy Butler is paid less than $49 million to play basketball for about seven months this season, and he doesn’t want to do it, at least not for the Heat. They suspended him for seven matches for “conduct detrimental to the team” earlier this month.
No one knows exactly what that means, but suffice it to say that Butler has made it his mission to get the hell out of Miami by, according to Jake Fischer, skipping pregame shootarounds and insisting on private flights separate from the team charter.
Butler got pretty scorched earth in his final postgame press conference before his official trade request and subsequent suspension, and his play on the field that night was, to say the least, uninspiring. He was adamant that he was giving his best effort, but that wasn’t the case. He took six shots and spent most of his time lounging in the corner on offense.
He also tried to explain that Erik Spoelstra’s existence forced him to take this position. Hilarious. Yes, I’m sure one of the best basketball coaches in the world, already working with a talent deficit most nights, just decided to turn his star player into a walk-on. Butler was mocked by the Heat, who, once again, are paying him $49 million this season.
Watch this from earlier this month against the Pelicans:
It was widely reported that Butler was unhappy that the Heat did not extend him a long-term contract last summer. Boo-hoo. Butler is 35 years old. Players live in a second apron world that has completely changed the way teams manage their accounts, particularly when it comes to older players whose huge final contracts will almost certainly age horribly. Go ask the 76ers what they think of Paul George in three years. Damn, ask them what they think of him right away.
Butler, of course, thinks he’s a better player than George, and he’s right about that. But that doesn’t make him right This. Business is business. The Heat benefited greatly from Butler, but he also benefited because he certainly hadn’t won anything before arriving in Miami.
If he were the competitor he likes to present himself to be, he would take on the challenge of having a great season at age 35 and showing everyone what he can do in the future, thus earning his next contract for the player that he is today and that he can be. move forward, rather than thinking it’s due to him for the player he used be.
That’s not how it works. And that’s not how Butler has operated throughout his career. Every time he felt a team was no longer in his best interest, he cut bait, and quite spectacularly so. So why can’t a team potentially cut him bait if they no longer think he’s the right player for them, at least not at the price he wants?
It’s hypocritical. If Butler thinks he’s that valuable, he can opt out of his $52.4 million contract for next season and become a free agent. Let’s see if the team he wants to play for is willing, or even able, to pay him what he thinks he’s worth. Because I’ll tell you this: It doesn’t look like any teams are knocking on Miami’s door to trade for Butler. That should tell you at least something.
