Shaquille O'Neal and the New Orleans Pelicans, shocker, aren't the only ones dismayed by Zion Williamson's level of conditioning and commitment in wake of his dispiriting performance against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday with a berth to the in-season tournament title game on the line.

JJ Redick called out his former teammate on Friday's edition of NBA Today, lamenting that Williamson is still not in acceptable game shape despite annual calls for him to improve his fitness.

“I was disappointed, and overall I've been disappointed in Zion this season. Look, we can certainly point to counting stats and say he's having a fine season. But you can be in the building, you can watch on TV, you can be courtside and you can see he's not in shape,” Redick said. “He's still not in shape despite everything that he's gone through. Despite numerous conversations with legends of the game about being in shape. He gets called out on national television once or twice a year for this thing, this very thing.”

Williamson finished with 13 points, two rebounds, three assists and three turnovers on 6-of-8 shooting, limited to just 25 minutes as Los Angeles blew the game open in the third quarter. Those pedestrian numbers don't accurately portray just how disengaged he looked from the opening tip and fatigued he was mere minutes into the action, though.

After the game, Williamson accepted blame for New Orleans' embarrassing loss, admitting he was “too laid back” and has “got to be better” defensively. At least that's a small step in the right direction for a young player whose career has been dogged by starts and stops related to nagging injuries and substandard conditioning.

The 2023-24 season marks Williamson's fifth year in the league, though. Considering he hasn't taken the necessary steps to be at his best by now, Redick seems to be losing faith Williamson will ever do it.

“Earlier this season, he had a press conference where he was talking about trying to buy in what the team wanted, and the reality is Zion Williamson has not bought into his own career yet,” he said. “And that is disappointing because as someone who is a fan of his, a former teammate, a fellow Duke guy, we all know how great he can be. We've seen those flashes of greatness. But to do that for an extended period of time, to reach his full potential…he's never gonna get there if he doesn't buy into his own career.”

Zion Williamson reaches early-career crossroads

Shaquille O'Neal gave Williamson some indirect tough love on TNT after the game, noting that he didn't reach his ceiling until realizing he wasn't working and playing hard enough. Flames of burning criticism were fanned further on Friday morning, when multiple Pelicans sources were quoted in a report by Christian Clark of NOLA.com saying Williamson “doesn't listen” to continued team urging to improve his diet and conditioning.

The current state of his game is especially deflating because Williamson supposedly took a more serious and professional approach than ever to his training and preparation over the offseason. That's what New Orleans head decision-maker David Griffin said at Media Day in early October, noting the 23-year-old spent the summer working with personal trainers he hired himself.

You definitely wouldn't know it by Williamson's effort on Thursday, and even the first six weeks of the regular season at large. He remains an abject defensive liability, regularly standing straight up and at times barely moving on that side of the ball while being completely disinterested in grabbing defensive rebounds. Williamson is posting career-low block and dunk rates, too, further evidence of diminished explosiveness easily confirmed by film alone.

New Orleans' roster construction is hardly seamless, but Willie Green's team—when close to full-health, at least—still has the talent to make real noise in the Western Conference this season. But that hope is contingent on Williamson regaining his prior status as a top-10 overall player with room to climb higher up that individual hierarchy, the trajectory he was clearly on a year ago before going down with yet another season-marring injury.

Time is running out for Williamson to be that caliber of league-changing franchise cornerstone. Let's hope the torrent of negative attention he's received in the last 24 hours will lead to Williamson finally changing his habits for good.