How The Pelicans are Hiding THE TRUTH About Zion Williamson

So, before you guys even ask, yes, I am a Pelicans fan, and I was here before Zion Williamson got on the team. I was also here before Anthony Davis got on the team, and in the Anthony Davis era, I had the pleasure of experiencing incredible expectations and immediate letdown. Injury after injury after injury summed up the Anthony Davis saga in New Orleans, but it wasn't just Anthony Davis who was getting injured, it was everybody around him. To say the least, the Pelicans injury luck sucked. But that wasn't the only thing that sucked, the Pelicans had a lot of problems. In 2016, the Pelicans would draft Buddy Heald, and immediately, I didn't know how to feel. Buddy Heald was a prolific scorer in college, and he was a sharpshooter who seemed to be the perfect player for today's NBA. But he did have some concerns about being able to get his shot off. Regardless, Buddy was easily a guy I could talk myself into and I could see the upside. After all, I didn't dislike Buddy Heald, I just loved Jamal Murray, who was also like 5 years younger, and would have seemed to be a perfect fit in Alvin Gentry's system. Regardless, Buddy starts out his career struggling with the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans end up trading Buddy Heald to the Sacramento Kings, for all NBA big man DeMarcus Cousins. Yeah, the DeMarcus Cousins. This trade was supposed to send New Orleans into a new era. The pair started off struggling, but it didn't take long to see the vision, and if you ask me, I think DeMarcus was more symbolic and more of a New Orleans type player than Anthony Davis ever was. DeMarcus was one with the culture, and he was instantly a fan favorite. Don't get me wrong, we loved Anthony Davis, but this pairing, this was supposed to be special. And it was, until January 26th, 2018. On this dreadful day, Boogie tore his Achilles, and just like that, the dream was dead. The unfortunate thing is, you could kind of see the injury coming, but as long as things work, we don't really see the desire to fix them, right? A guy that big, a guy DeMarcus Cousins size, probably was not meant to play basketball the way he was in New Orleans. To Alvin Gentry's tribute, he did slow the game down for DeMarcus Cousins, but in general, the Pelicans play a very fast style of basketball, and even with Boogie in the game, the Pelicans were one of the faster teams in the league. With Boogie out of the game, they were at the very top of the list for pace in the NBA. Things get a lot worse. You have to look at Boogie's usage percentage, but not only his percentage, also the fashion in which he was being used. This could be one of the biggest factors of everything. Boogie was not a traditional big man, no. He played like a guard, and I mean that in a literal sense. Boogie was an actual point sensor in New Orleans, and while it did make for exciting basketball, I'm just not sure Boogie's body at the time was built to sustain that type of playstyle. Now you guys may be familiar with another prospect in New Orleans right now, who goes by the name of Zion Williamson. Well Zion has some of those same exact concerns, but regardless, he's still one of the most polarizing prospects the NBA has ever seen. We've never seen a guy this big, this fast, this strong. Zion Williamson is 6 foot 6, almost 300 pounds. The crazy thing is, is that Zion Williamson said he didn't pick up all this weight until about his junior year of high school. He said he gained 100 pounds in just about 2 years. It's crazy to think that somebody like Zion Williamson could still be figuring out their body, could still get a lot better. This whole thing is something that's still relatively new to Zion. Before Zion's injury in the preseason, Zion looked dominant, and it didn't look like anybody had any idea how to stop him. And I mean how could you? How could you guard somebody so big, so fast, so strong, and so powerful? It's a tough task for anybody in the NBA, even a defensive player of the year like Rudy Gobert. And I don't want to take anything away from Zion's craftiness, because I think that's truly what propels him to the next level as a basketball player. His creativity is phenomenal, and his heart is unmatched. This video, we're going to be talking about how the Pelicans are hiding the truth about Zion Williamson, but that's not all. The Pelicans have gotten away with a lot, and we're going to discuss it in this video. But be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications guys, you will not want to miss another Dkoop video, and that's facts. I'm trying to get to 200,000 subscribers so I can go full time, so be sure to subscribe so I can bring you guys daily content. I'm actually finally out of school right now, so it's about to be a cold winter. I've been seeing requests on videos that you guys want, and I want you guys to continue leaving those down in the comments below, because I'm going to bring those to you. The Ja Morant video is coming very soon, but I want to wait for him to get back active. Now upcoming this weekend, we have James Harden, we have Luka Doncic, and we're going to do a Lonzo Ball video. But also guys be sure to follow me on Instagram, handle G Like Koop, you will not want to miss another post, and yes I did finally get my first post up. When Zion Williamson was drafted to New Orleans, the Pelicans saw a major spike in interest. The Pelicans were selling out games, that's really hard for a New Orleans basketball team to do. We know New Orleans loves the Saints more than anything, it's been a football city for the longest, and that can go back to the early roots of New Orleans having it's basketball team taken from them, and being given a name like the Pelicans. New Orleans Jazz makes a lot of sense, and it resonates with the city. While the Pelican is the state bird of Louisiana, it's just not a fun logo to have. Anyways, Zion was set to change the narrative that was around New Orleans basketball. It was the first time in a really long time that I could say that I could see New Orleans becoming a basketball city. With Lonzo Ball Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and all of the new faces, Jackson Hayes, Nikhil Alexander Walker, and again, Zion Williamson, the Pelicans were able to get major interest in their practices. Their practices were looking as good as games, and everybody was watching them. They wanted to see what Zion Williamson was going to do, they wanted to see Lonzo Ball throwing the lobs. It was a magical time for the city. The Pelicans took note of this, and I'm sure they wanted to capitalize. They were taking advantage of the whole Zion experience. They were selling Zion, and it was working, until Zion got hurt. That's when I figured the Pelicans had to figure out a way to stall things for a little bit until Zion would be able to return, to keep the hype really high. The initial belief behind Zion's injury is that it was a very very minor one, and that it would be a week to week injury. I remember because I did a video on this. Whether the reports were wrong, or the Pelicans just flat out leaked the wrong reports, it was much more than just a week to week injury, and as a matter of fact, throughout this whole process, the Pelicans have been anything but clear. And this could simply be to hide what is much more concerning about Zion Williamson. But on the other hand, it could be to shield Zion Williamson for some of the hate that he could get, if he actually did have a long term injury. Just a week ago, Reggie Miller said that Zion was supposed to return mid-December. Well, he was quickly corrected, and the initial timetable has now been extended. Alvin Gentry said I think Zion's fine, I don't think it's anything that can be rushed. It's a time thing, 6 weeks is what we said, but I mean obviously he's making progress. When the time comes for him to start on-court activities and things like that, he will. It's not anything that's going to be rushed, it's just a matter of taking the time to make sure he's fine. Gentry went on to say that he's itching to return, but sometimes you have to protect basketball players from themselves. We're not just going to put him back out there, we're going to be overly cautious about it and make sure that he's 100% before we do that. Gentry went on to emphasize that he wants to be overly cautious, and that there's no date in mind. So there's a legit chance that Zion does not play a game this season. I mean the Pelicans have been spiraling as of late, and I mean I think Zion would help save the season, but would it even be worth it? If Zion has truly been hurt, he could have the Joel Embiid effect go on where he can't work out because he's hurt. When Joel Embiid was hurt, he just simply couldn't condition himself. It was kind of a cause and effect type thing, and it made life really hard for Embiid to get back into shape. But that brings up another issue. Do the Pelicans actually believe that Zion is not in basketball shape? Or more so, do they actually believe that Zion's weight could be a possible issue, and a cause for concern regarding further injury? Pelicans VP David Griffin said the notion that this happened because Zion is in poor condition is asinine. Regarding Zion's injury, he says that the weight is not a cause for concern or not a cause for the injury. The VP actually said you don't want him to be lighter at the expense of the strength he needs to control himself. But, in David Griffin's defense, he has said there have been no setbacks, and that Zion could still return in the original 6-8 week timeline. He says if he doesn't, that means there have not been setbacks, but that means he has not reached where the Pelicans want him to be before he returns. He says that Zion Williamson is a unique athlete, he's a unique player. He's 285, he's currently in a party of one. He also said that when Zion does return, he plans to low-manage him. He said he wants to make sure everything is right with Zion. He wants to make sure he's ready for the course of an NBA season. He said he really wants to get Zion back into playing shape, but that his weight was absolutely not a problem. I'm interested to know what you guys think on this whole situation. Apparently if you want to get through the transparency, you just have to ask David Griffin himself. Be sure to click the video on the screen guys, it's me going over the next step for the New York Knicks. Be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications. I'm Da Coup, and I'm out.