Trade CJ McCollum to New Orleans

Had the same issue early today, but it just stopped on its own.

 

People should take it easy on Zion in my opinion. He obviously has some mental health issues. I'm sure when he saw all of this stuff about not having contacted CJ, he was embarrassed by it and is trying to make it right. He's got an injury and is so overweight it's hard if not impossible to rehab it.

I really hope he gets the help he needs to get the weight off and keeps it off. So he can have as good of a career as his skills and talents allow. He's never come off as anything less than a good guy to me... maybe I'm missing something and someone could post a link to an interview where the guy was a dick.

 

You can be a dick by checking out on your team without being an overt dick. It's really unprofessional. Not the first time a player has just checked out because they got drafted by a team they didn't want to play for.

 

JJ Reddick called him a “detached teammate”. JJ was his teammate for the most of first two year of Zion career. Reddick is mostly a chill guy but he has nothing great to say about Zion as a teammate from his time with him. I agreed there is probably some mental health going on but Zion was never all in New Orleans since he been there

 

First Simmons, now Zion. Are you going to defend every team-last diva that way?

 

Not to be a dick, but it really frosts my buns when people who are truly suffering see their problems mocked by millionaires looking for a get-out-of-jail-free card. Mental illness is a serious matter, not something to invoke in a frivolous PR campaign!

 

Yeah, unless I can overtly see something about a guy that indicates that he's egocentric before having emotional health issues, I probably will defend every guy who is getting lambasted. Simmons didn't show on court that he was a me first guy. Zion really hasn't shown that either. Reddick saying that Zion was a detached teammate doesn't tell me a lot since Zion seems pretty detached from the reality that not only is he squandering all of his amazing talents with his eating and most likely conditioning but like many Americans who don't have his gifts he is taking off years from his life.

I'm just not a tough love believer and it would be stretch to say that most fans are even giving any of the love side of that when it comes to a lot of players and certainly not these two guys. So yeah, I defended Simmons being willing to give up money to get out of what was for him a toxic work environment and I feel bad for Zion that he doesn't see the worth in taking care of himself and seems like he's detached from those around him.

 

So millionaires don't have mental illness and if they do from your vantage point you feel secure in diagnosing Ben Simmons and Zion Williamson as not having them. If I was going to try a decipher if Ben Simmons was genuine in his claims that he was struggling with mental illness that would be a tough one from where I'm sitting, so I give him the benefit of the doubt. As far as Zion is concerned it's hard not to see that he has some serious disorders that are endangering his career and his life.

 

What do you consider a "mental illness"?

People from all walks of life can be selfish, lazy, immature, or have a sense of entitlement. Only the rich and famous use personality quirks as excuses. (well, that and some criminal defense attorneys) You will note the Simmons never had a problem until his behavior affected his bank account! Some things speak for themselves.

 

So you are capable of making psychiatric diagnoses from where you sit? Must be cool.

 

In all seriousness, does it not strike you as odd that his problems only started after he was to told to either show up for work or not get paid? Now that his demands have been met he is OK and planning to return to the court. Do you not see how self-serving his claim is? There is no indication he sought professional help for his "problems", and even if he had mental health issue don't just go away after a few days or weeks.

If I see someone without a handicapped permit, particularly someone in a flashy car, parks in a handicapped space, my first reaction is not to pity them or see them as a victim. If that makes me a big meany, so be it. I've had too much experience with people with real mental health issues to have patience with this kind of crap!

 

There are reports that he started seeing a sports psychologist right after the Atlanta series. As far as when he made his struggles with mental illness part of the public discourse, there are two explanations for why it happened when it did, that don't require a bystander to accuse someone of using mental illness as a bogus excuse. The first is that he was already being treated and already knew that he couldn't handle the work environment and was forced to make it public because of the demands of the Sixers. The second is that he didn't fully understand just how traumatic going back to work with his teammates, coach and the prospect of playing in front of the fans would be until he was about to do it.

I realize that there's a trend in our society today is to think everything is a hoax especially when it comes to having compassion for famous multimillionaires. That being said we have a long standing culture of minimizing mental illness and blindly accusing the mentally ill of using it as an excuse or just of being weak instead of having empathy. Sure, anyone who doesn't do something and says they aren't because of mental illness might not being honest but making that call from the outside is pretty shitty.

 

For the record, I actually agree with some of your points.

 

There sure are a lot of people here making some crazy assumptions.

 

Another cool 32 for CJ

 

Jake Fischer just said here:



We could have had Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart last season for CJ McCollum.

He also hinted that we moved too soon on the Powell deal (like everyone said).

Other notes:

Dame and Jerami Grant HAVE had private conversations about playing together.

Dunno what Nurk's market is, but seems like they already have a number in mind and he's re-signing with the Blazers.

 

Lonzo nugget is interesting. But if that NO pick conveys, I like it more than lonzo and his new contract.

Jake keeps on saying the plan is for us to build around Dame/ Grant / 3rd star but cant say who that 3rd guy is. Collectively forgetting about Ant...

 

FTFY

 

If we trade our picks this draft for Jerami Fucking Grant, I swear I shall burn SOMETHING to the ground

 

Maybe Jody is Russian?