New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson came into the NBA with a massive target on his back. Not only did Williamson go to Duke for a year, but while at Duke he solidified himself as one of the most must-see college players of the 21st century. With all sorts of fanfare — even among non-Duke fans — and expectations that were through the roof, Zion was the 1st overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. It was considered a no-brainer selection for the Pelicans.

Now, just about five years later, Zion is still struggling to find his footing in the NBA, and it's not because he's been an ineffective player… it's because his availability has been so inconsistent that it's hard to truly consider him a franchise guy. In what equates to about four and a half seasons, Zion has played in just 159 games. This is due to injuries, injury maintenance, and ramp up activities which seem to take Zion a little longer than most, likely because he is carrying around more weight than most guys.

The weight has been a problem since Zion stepped into the NBA, and it's a debate that folks like ESPN's Stephen A. Smith is more than happy to talk yell about whenever they're presented with the opportunity.

On one hand, the concerns about Zion's weight are warranted, but let's just be honest, most of the time, they're handled pretty cruelly by the members of the media who are speaking on the topic. Is it necessary for Stephen A. to be making cracks about the burgers and the chefs and all the McDonald's that Zion is apparently eating? Has he, and seemingly everyone else, forgotten how to talk about sports on a human level? Here's the type of analysis that would be preferred:

Zion Williamson is averaging just 30 minutes per game, only 6.8 free throw attempts (a career low), and 5.4 rebounds (again, a career low). These seem like pretty good indicators of a player who isn't in ideal playing shape. Yes, Zion Williamson is undersized, but undersized power forwards are still supposed to be rebounding better than this. At the moment, Zion is 75th in rebounds per game. Old man Al Horford averages more rebounds per game than Zion, as do Brandin Podziemski, Kevin Love, Santi Aldama, John Collins, Goga Bitadze, and Jabari Walker, among many, many others who average fewer minutes and more rebounds per game than Zion.

That is a problem, but let's give a little credit to Zion too: In the month of February, Williamson has played in seven Pelicans games. New Orleans was 6-1 in those games, and Zion averaged 25 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists per game. I'm all about watching point-Zion go to work on the rest of the Western Conference.

As much as anybody else, I hope all injury and weight concerns for Zion are eventually a thing of the past. And in the past, I probably would've been lining up right behind Stephen A. to make cracks about Zion's weight too. But I'm gonna choose to be better than that, and I'd challenge any basketball analyst to do the same.