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Zion's been very bad defensively. He doesn't need to be a primary rim protector, but I don't think that's going to be his role. He'd be a switchable guy, weakside shot blocker guy. That's what he was in college when he was one of the best defenders in the NCAA. Obviously the competition level is quite different between the NCAA and the NBA, lol, but we've seen Zion at a post-HS level playing elite defense. I think it's easy to see the path for Zion to become a plus NBA defender. It's harder to see that with Ja due to his slighter build and frame imo. (And, for what it's worth, the defensive metrics for Ja the last two seasons were worse than Zion's defensive metrics.)
And, again, it all comes down to me that Zion did 27 and 7 at age 20, and he was one of the most dominant offensive forces when on the floor that we've seen in years-- too big for guys his size to guard him, too nimble for bigger guys to guard him. At age 20.
So yeah, he's been hurt all year, and that sucks. But I don't have drastically different injury concerns today than I did in, say, November. And I didn't bring up the Joel example as a style comparison-- just pointing out that, sometimes, when guys are hurt a lot early in their career, people immediately go "oh, that's who he is. injury prone, will be forever." But if they can give you 55-60 regular season games and a healthy postseason, they can change your franchise for the better. Zion wouldn't change New Orleans's defense right today, that's true-- might make it worse, lol-- but he's just so transformative on offense right away.
And Ja fucking rules, I'm real high on Ja too. It's just hard for me to sell on Zion after what we saw last year, what we've seen him do in the NBA when healthy. I've also just seen enough players go through injuries and seen speculation that they'll never be the same, only to have them still be insanely effective. Maybe Zion's got to get the fuck out of New Orleans, maybe it's a Wiggins thing. I don't know. But Zion can't even legally drink til July. And we saw last year what he can do. I'm not ready to sell that potential just because of a lost season.
Joel played 93 games over his first four seasons and now he might be the MVP. He just had to get a few seasons under his belt to really unlock what he's become. If Zion can actually play 60+ games a year for a couple seasons, I still genuinely believe he's got the potential to be an all-time level offensive weapon. So I'm content to bide my time on that potential, even if the worst-case injury scenario does happen. My movies: http://russellhainline.com
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