“Motherf***er Might Have to Play 35 Minutes!”: Zion Williamson’s ‘Limited’ Preseason Minutes Had 2016 NBA Champion Fuming

Zion Williamson is back and is looking healthy. The Duke basketball phenom has looked good so far, as he is coming back from an injury. But, 2016 NBA Champion, Richard Jefferson isn’t a fan of how the Pelicans are dealing with Zion’s return. According to the vet, Zion should be playing his full minutes during pre-season. Zion, who does still look ‘chubby’, needs more game time, according to Jefferson. More so, while on the Road Trippin Podcast, Richard Jefferson was asked about his opinion on Zion and his minutes restrictions.

Richard, who has seen the insides and outside of the league, didn’t understand the Pelican’s approach to keeping Zion on restricted minutes. He doesn’t believe that ramping up minutes as the season goes on is practical for a player like Zion, as the team will need him from day one of the regular season.

Richard Jefferson isn’t a fan of Zion’s game-time restriction

Zion Williamson is finally healthy and has played for the Pelicans this pre-season. However, the team is still keeping him on a minute restriction. Zion has so far only played 28 minutes a night. Though many understand the approach of slowly easing into playing, Richard Jefferson doesn’t understand the Pelican’s approach.

While on the Road Trippin podcast, Jefferson aired his views on the matter, telling the host,

“You can’t run a marathon unless you try and run a marathon. Listen this is the thing about preseason. Game one can go into overtime. We saw that last year. He is not going to start the season on a minutes restriction. In game one, he is forced to play 37 or 41 minutes because it goes into overtime, when are you preparing for that? That’s what the preseason is for. They always say, we are going to play you 25-30 minutes here. Then at the last, lots of coaches say the last preseason game or the second to last preseason game, you going to play your normal minutes. So if you playing your normal minutes that is to condition you to do it“.

Richard Jefferson continued his rant, telling the host,

“There is no ramp-up to the season where you are like “Oh hey listen, we are going to start him off playing about 25-30. And as he starts to build up his conditioning, as we get to around Christmas, we’ll start using his minutes to 35.” It’s like no, that motherf***er” Might have to play 35 minutes a night to start the joint“.

Jefferson is not a fan of the load management style approach to playing basketball. But Jefferson’s arguments do have some basis though. Most star players don’t play big minutes in the pre-season games, but it’s different for someone like Zion. Williamson hasn’t played NBA paced basketball recently, and expecting Zion to ramp up slowly, is not realistic.

Williamson could win MVP this year

Zion Williamson is not someone who lacks confidence on the court. After Zion’s first game against Orlando, the power forward told reporters that “the defense is gonna have to decide on whether they gon’ focus on me or focus on BI and both of us are gonna capitalize on that.”

Though the Pelicans have a great offensive team, on defense, the Pelicans have to pick up the slack if they want to make it out of the very competitive Eastern Conference.

But it’s not only Zion Williams who is confident in his approach. Gilbert Arenas recently backed Zion up. While on his podcast, Gil’s Arena, Gilbert Arena declared Zion as a possible contender for the MVP.

Arenas believes that if Zion keeps healthy, and follows proper protocol, he can be in the MVP race in the upcoming season. Though it’s too early to judge Zion’s capability, we all hope the Duke Phenom stays healthy this season.