Zion Williamson and the Bigger Picture

Pelicans analyst Antonio Daniels shares his thoughts on whether New Orleans’s injured star could return this season.

Andrew Wevers/USA TODAY Sports

On the Friday edition, Howard Beck first welcomes Pelicans analyst Antonio Daniels to discuss Zion Williamson’s (potential? eventual? imminent?) return to the court, plus thoughts on Heat infighting and the secret of Gregg Popovich’s success. Later, three-time champ Andre Iguodala joins the show to discuss sleep habits and his role in the new documentary, “The Quest for Sleep.”

The following transcript is an excerpt from The Crossover NBA podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.

Howard Beck: Let’s talk about your Pelicans. Zion Williamson set the world on fire with a two-second clip of him dunking shirtless. It was enough to set Twitter abuzz—doesn’t take much to set Twitter abuzz. And then followed up the next day by a 10- second clip of him driving and dunking on poor Corey Brewer, who’s a great guy. We have these back-to-back days of Zion doing something and then the last we’ve heard officially is he’s cleared for some one-on-ones. What does this all mean? What does it not mean, in terms of the bigger picture here? 

We’ve been waiting all season, he was gone for a while, and there’s all this mystery. And we are just down to the last couple of weeks of the regular season. Pelicans fighting for position in terms of the play-in. Are we overreacting? Do we take anything out of this? What’s meaningful? What’s not? 

I personally, as the sober-minded nuanced member of the media that I am, who just goes with the facts … as Shaq always told us, “Write what you see,” I just write what I see. I look at it as, O.K., he dunked, a dunk doesn’t mean anything, a two-second clip doesn’t mean anything. And with apologies to Corey Brewer, driving and dunking on Corey Brewer in a 10-second clip doesn’t mean anything in terms of whether or not Zion is ready to come back and whether the doctors are ready to clear him, whether he’s physically ready and whether the coaching staff wants to put him back in the mix at this late stage of the season. 

So those are the questions I have for you, as the Pelicans expert and insider. And you’re there for practices a lot of the time too and as a broadcaster. You guys get to see a lot that we don’t. What else have you seen, Antonio, that gives you an indication of where Zion is in this process? And look, you’re a former player who’s gone through injuries and everybody’s different, but what is your sense as we sit here on March 24 of whether we will see Zion back in the mix with the Pelicans before the season ends?

Antonio Daniels: I will say first and foremost, do I think we'll see Zion back in the mix with the Pelicans this season? Probably not. Because if you think about it, we are talking about two and a half weeks remaining in the season. That's it, two and a half weeks remaining. And we have to understand he hasn't played all year. He hasn't had one practice with head coach Willie Green. There are two teams this season whose best player have yet to lace up their shoes with their team. The Pelicans and the Clippers. Those are the only two teams. So right now, would you risk bringing Zion back? 

I think we allow the smaller picture to kind of cloud the bigger picture. The smaller picture is the fact that he averaged 27 points with 61% from the field last year. So you know we want to see him on the floor. The smaller picture is the fact that he’s one-of-one in the history of the sport. I’ve never seen anyone with that size, strength, athleticism, ability to finish around the rim, creativity and explosiveness all in a body type. I’ve never seen it. That’s the smaller picture. 

The bigger picture is his future though. The bigger picture is what does this look like, 10, 12 years down the line? I tell this story all the time, but Tim Duncan, we won the championship in 1999 with the San Antonio Spurs. The following year, I thought we had a better team. I thought we had a much better team. You had guys that were more cohesive, guys that were together more, all these different things. Tim Duncan got hurt right before the playoffs, but then the doctors released him and cleared him to play. Pop says, you know what? No, no, no, no, no. You're going to sit out. So he sat out the playoffs. We ended up losing to Phoenix first round. Because the thing is, the smaller picture was another championship in 2000, but the bigger picture was a championship with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014, that Pops saw at the time that we couldn’t see and that fans couldn’t see either. 

So I think sometimes we allow the smaller picture at the time to cloud the bigger picture. I know we want to see that young man on the floor. No one wants to see that young man on the floor more than me! Calling these Pelicans games next to BI (Brandon Ingram) and next to CJ McCollum and next to Jonas (Valanciunas) and next to Herb Jones. Think about how good this team will look with these young guys. How bouncy, young, athletic and lively this team will be. But what good does that do if you’re risking all that for one season or two seasons? You know, the thing is you want to make sure he’s healthy, so this can be something that’s ongoing year after year after year after year, not just be concerned with this year in 2022.

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