The conditioning of Zion Williamson came under scrutiny on Thursday as the New Orleans Pelicans were blown out in the In-Season Tournament semifinals by the Los Angeles Lakers. The speed and energy of LeBron James at the age of 38 contrasted with Williamson in a dramatic way.
The Pelicans have repeated stressed to Williamson that his diet and conditioning needs to improve. Multiple sources from the Pelicans told Christian Clark of The Times-Picayune that Williamson “doesn’t listen.”
Williamson has a career low PER of 21.8 this season though he has so far remained healthy and available to play. Williamson has been an All-Star in 2021 and 2023.
Tyrese Haliburton’s “mission” is to use the Indiana Pacers’ success in the In-Season Tournament and the regular season to recruit star players to the team, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
“This is a team with salary cap space and draft picks. And [Haliburton] knows that his team president Kevin Pritchard has been really aggressive in the last year trying to chase players like Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby in Toronto, offering big trade packages for players who could become free agents in the near future.
“And what changes the equation for the Pacers now is that they know they have a Pied Piper in Tyrese Haliburton that guys are going to want to play with. And as Haliburton said to me, ‘I’m going to get you shots, I’m going to make life easy for you, and we are going to win.’
“And that is really Haliburton’s mission right now, to use this tournament, to use this season to start making the case to star players around the league, ‘Come play with me in Indiana,'” said Wojnarowski.
Haliburton had 27 points and 15 assists in leading the Pacers to the final of the In-Season Tournament against the Lakers.
Bobby Portis “passionately” challenged Adrian Griffin and his Milwaukee Bucks teammates following their loss to the Indiana Pacers in the In-Season Tournament, sources told Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.
The Bucks lost the game 128-119 and were outscored 37-25 in the fourth quarter.
Griffin reportedly emphasized winning the rebound battle after the game. Portis interjected by pointing out the importance for Griffin to structure the offense down the stretch of games.
Griffin acknowledged he could be more aggressive with his play-calling. Portis then added that it was up to the players to execute as well as Griffin to give the offense direction.
The Pacers outrebounded the Bucks 51-46 in the game.
