Pelicans Confront Zion About Diet Issues Again!

Zion Williamson is one of the most talented young players in today's NBA but his weight has held him back. Now his rookie season was the Covid year which means it was cut short so not going to pay much attention to that year. However the following season, the 2020-21 season, Zion had a great season and he was primarily healthy as he played in 61 out of 72 games. The following season, the 2021-22 season, is where things didn't go so great for Zion as he missed the entire season. 

This past season was another season of watching Zion struggle to stay on the court. He played in just 29 out of 82 games last season as he dealt with many injuries. It was unfortunate because prior to him missing games the Pelicans were playing great as a team and Zion was playing great. In fact, at one point during the season they were the number one seed in the Western Conference but it all went downhill once Zion went down. The Pelicans finished last season without Zion and missed the playoffs after losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in their single-elimination Play-In Tournament game. 

So far this season Zion has been primarily healthy but he's been going through an offensive slump recently and his defense hasn't been any better neither. It was recently reported by Christian Clark from The Times-Picayune that the Pelicans "have repeatedly stressed to Williamson that his diet and conditioning need to improve". However it was also mentioned that Zion "doesn't listen". If this is true then that must be difficult to hear for his teammates and the organization because they continue to express belief in him but his diet and weight are what's been the issue. Zion has just entered the first year of his rookie max extension contract and if things don't start to improve then the Pelicans will be forced to make a difficult business decision. 

I think it is worth mentioning that Brandon Ingram has one more year left on his current deal after this season. Ingram decided to stop extension talks this past summer and wants to wait until next summer to try and earn more money. If the Zion situation doesn't get better then he might not even go through extension talks and just finish his deal and enter free agency. It is definitely not easy to commit to a diet however it's unfortunate to see that Zion isn't listening, if that is true. The Pelicans are currently 12-11, the eight seed in the Western Conference, and while it is still relatively early into the season the Pelicans need to address their issues sooner rather than later before more games slip away.