New Orleans Pelicans: Grading the first round draft selections

Zion Williamson

Grade: A+

Come on, what’d you think the grade on this pick was going to be? There never was any second guessing who the New Orleans Pelicans were going to select with the first overall pick. The organization now gets its third attempt at building around a franchise-altering talent, something tells me this time around will be the charm.

What’s to say about Zion Williamson that hasn’t already been said? We all now comprehend in the basketball spectrum what he is, and what he represents. There are still doubters—some may even want to see him fail—but that comes with the territory of being the most hyped prospect in years.

He’s a special individual, on and off the basketball court. He took the collegiate basketball world by storm this past season for Duke, averaging a ridiculous 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks on 68 percent shooting. Oh, and he had a 2P% of 74.7—meaning he hit every 3 out of 4 shots inside the arc.

He had an offensive rating of 135.0 and a defensive rating of 91.1, had a PER of 40.8, and had a true shooting percentage of 70.2. Yeah, he’s not from this planet.

There are concerns about perimeter shooting, especially with how today’s game is played, but he did shoot 33.8 percent from distance (be it on 2.2 attempts per game).

Take this game against UCF for instance, Williamson shot 3/7 from three-point land in a must-win tournament game. The shot isn’t “broken”.

Despite his aforementioned stats, there will be growing pains for Zion in his rookie campaign. But as time progresses and he matures, he’ll adapt to how NBA defenses play him. He’s a special talent, New Orleans couldn’t have asked for a better cornerstone to usher in a new era.