12-17-2021, 01:40 PM
(12-17-2021, 12:20 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Oh, sure! It's all hypothetical right now and there's plenty of room for it to go many different ways.
But, it's not about health (exactly), because the injuries have very clearly been caused by the weight. As you get heavier, your feet, knees, etc, have a more difficult time doing even basic work safely, and he's trying to be a professional athlete (whose game hinges on uncommonly athletic movement, no less).
I'd say the biggest issue facing Zion is the weight.
I would agree there could probably is a correlation with more weight and injuries. This could be answered by taking number of light weight players and injuries and comparing that to heavier ones, and comparing same positions, age etc. There should be some quantitative statistical analysis done on something like this, it would make sense if there was a correlation, but it would take many players to determine a possible effect.
For a group of players one could find a correlation maybe. However, its very hard to determine exactly for each player that this (weight) was the actual cause. Light weight players tend also to get season and career ending injuries or multiple injuries, and there its not the weight, so obviously other forces than weight are a factor as well. It's hard to know whether this is bad luck, or due to weight, for one particular player.
One thing I do know, I do respect players that have shown skill and ability to dominate in the NBA. This is extremely unusual. And this means that this player can do it at the highest level. It can be bad luck with injuries he is dealing and that it would have been the same, or perhaps even he could have had even more bad luck being light weight - in some situations the more weight can actually protect you when you hit other players, although it probably also reverses that in others.
Based on his play, I would never write him off. He may even turn that into advantage like Shaq did. It could very well be also correlated with weight as you mention his injuries, and it could continue and he might never recover. Technically, he would be a bust. But in my eyes, the real bust is the one that cant play at NBA level, when fully healthy. Injuries can be bad luck. It could also be a sign that you play the wrong way.
When Zion was not bothered by injuries Luka and he and Giannis were the most unstoppable players in the NBA. I guess this was when Durant and Curry were out, and they should be on that list as well. But bad luck can sometimes stop and turn into a period of good luck. I wouldn't mind trading for Zion for instance.