Annual salary of 40 million yuan, but he became the top pick in the NBA! An overrated star, you should also leave

Speaking of the teams that have retreated the fastest in the NBA this season, the two first teams that come to mind must be the 76ers and the Suns. The 76ers are affected by Embiid's injury, and the new player George is not very good, so they started to play badly early. The Suns are due to the compatibility issues of the Big Three, and their lineup structure has shortcomings, and their books look flashy. Another one is the Mavericks, last year's Western Conference champion and participant in the finals, but also stopped in the playoffs this year. After all, Doncic, the team's core team building, was sent away, and the team's record decline was inevitable, and Irving was also reimbursed. Of course, for the Mavericks, their fall is only short-lived, and their combat power will become quite terrifying next season. When Irving returns with full health, with thick eyebrows, the overall lineup depth is also good. Most importantly, they are about to welcome the highly anticipated No. 1 pick Flag.

Among the fastest teams in the NBA regression this season, there is another unpopular team that is often forgotten, that is, the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans are in the small football market and are not a Western Conference giant, but they have good records in the past few seasons, with the marginal level of the playoffs, and also have the potential of a dark horse. Last season, the Pelicans' regular season winning rate was as high as 59.8%, tied for the sixth place in the Western Conference with the Suns. In order to strike while the iron is hot and further break the upper limit, the Pelicans continued to strengthen their lineup in the offseason last year and improve their starting books. They signed all-star defender Dezhangtai Murray from the Hawks, and the four giants of Zion + Ingram + McCollum + Murray were formed. In terms of status, these four people are definitely not as good as the top super giants in the league, but they are all serious stars. Only CJ has never been to the All-Star, but he is also the biggest bead of the All-Star in history.

I thought that after introducing Murray, the Pelicans could go further this year, but they did not expect that they suffered a tragic defeat. This season's regular season, the Pelicans' final record was 21 wins and 61 losses, ranking second from the bottom in the West, with a winning rate of 34 percentage points lower than last season. The biggest reason for his diving record is that due to injury, new aid Murray broke his bones as soon as he arrived, and his Achilles tendon ruptured shortly after returning. The team's boss Zion's glassman attributes reappeared. He played only 30 games intermittently throughout the season, and Ingram was traded again in the middle of the season. When talking about my feelings in the first year of joining the Pelicans, Murray was very frustrated: "I encountered many problems. Not only did I break my hand, my mother also had a stroke at that time, one of my cousins ​​was killed, my uncle overdoses, I was under a lot of pressure, and I was very angry and sad every day. Then it was my Achilles tendon to tear it. During that time, I really didn't want to show up. This was crazy."

Some people speculated that there was something wrong with the Pelicans' Feng Shui? Not only Zion, but Murray, including the stars Cousins ​​and Thick Brows who once lived in the Pelicans, were not very happy here and were covered in scars. There was even an early Chris Paul who suffered a serious meniscus injury when playing for the Pelicans' predecessor, the New Orleans Hornets, and directly flowed from flying to floor flow (a hot knowledge: Paul was also a violent guard at the beginning). Of course, putting aside these metaphysics, the Pelicans are now in a slump and it is difficult to make a breakthrough. The star Zion is responsible for the main responsibility. Because his injury was partly caused by himself, Zion was too poor in self-discipline and could not control his weight, which increased the risk of injury.

When a guest on the Arenas podcast, Zion said: "Let me control my body? That's hard, brother, I'm only in my early 20s, and I have all the money in the world. So... it feels like all the money in the world. Want me to diet? It's too hard." With Zion's star with an athletic ability, he is prone to injury, not to mention that he is not small. In recent years, Zion has not taken too much action in body management. His weight once soared to 150 kilograms. With the early reimbursement of this season, Zion's career attendance rate has also been reduced again. According to statistics, he has played more than 30 games in the regular season in only 2 years in 6 years, and has never played a playoff game. Everyone is wondering when we will see him recovering from health again.

Not only that, Zion has also had many off-court incidents. Just this year's offseason, he was accused of rape and physical abuse by an anonymous woman. Two years ago, similar things happened. A movie star accused Zion of deceiving his relationship on social media. He was not self-disciplined on and off the court, and wasted his talent as the top scorer at the historical level. To be honest, judging from his performance so far in his career, as long as he can play, Zion's ability is still unquestionable. The key is that he just won't play. The Pelicans management has also lost patience. After the Pelicans were eliminated in the regular season this year, the team boss instructed the operational president that he had to trade Zion this summer. However, what is more embarrassing is that most league executives generally believe that the value of Zion's trading is already very limited, and it may only be exchanged for junk contracts at present, without including any high-quality draft picks.

"This situation reminds people of Derek Ross and Christaps Porzingis of that year. Some teams may be willing to take over, but such teams often meet two conditions: one is that they are urgent enough, and the other is that they will not pay any valuable chips." At present, Zion's contract has ended two years, and his annual salary will exceed $40 million next season. So far in his career, Zion has played in a total of 214 games, and his average annual appearance of $537,400 per game, surpassing Embiid, Simmons and others to rank first in history. If this continues, the super No. 1 pick who has caused huge waves in the league will become a parallel player. Will the Pelicans continue to train him?