New Orleans Pelicans: What accolades will Zion achieve during his rookie year?

The rookie phenom continues to sign as the New Orleans Pelicans power through the preseason, which leaves the masses thinking about Zion’s upcoming season.

The New Orleans Pelicans are just two games into the preseason, but much like in his lone season at Duke, Zion Williamson is quickly dominating conversations about the upcoming league year.

Right now, if Zion Williamson were a hype factory, the United States would have to shut it down, because he would end up violating monopoly legislation. He’s signed huge endorsement deals, his jersey is everywhere, and you can’t watch an hour of ESPN without hearing his name.

His dimensions, at 6’6″, 285 LBS frame shouldn’t allow him to glide through the air and across the court so quickly, but questions about his bulk are easily answered when his athleticism is on display during on-court action.

In both preseason games, Williamson was top two in scoring, including a 29 point outburst against the Chicago Bulls, where he went 12-of-13 from the floor.

What’s so captivating about Zion is that it’s about more than the rim-rocking dunks and highlight tapes.

It’s his complete basketball arsenal, including clever passing, elite footwork, and a top-level basketball IQ that helps him evaluate every detail on both ends of the floor among the game’s elite players.

He sees the game far better than even the average top-pick, 19-year-old player; he’s just ready to be great right out of the gate.

Playing at Duke, he looked bigger, faster, and stronger than every player on the court. He averaged 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game for the Blue Devils, shooting at a 68% field goal rate. Over his 33 game run at Duke, he became one of the greatest college players in that level’s history.

In college, the awards came quickly. Zion was All-NCAA First Team, All-NCAA Defensive First Team, and the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year, in addition to about every other major award for which he was eligible to win.

Awards and accolades could come just as fast in the NBA.

We’ve seen just a limited sample size, but once again, Zion looks bigger, faster, and stronger than every player on the court, even at the highest level of basketball in the world. There’s potential for some incredibly special things to happen to this young player in year one of his hopefully long-lasting NBA career.

Zion Williamson, Rookie of the Year

Perhaps it’s the most obvious of any award the rookie could take home at the end of his first season, but it’s still one of the most important trophies in the game.

It’s an award that’s been claimed by role players like Michael Carter-Williams, but also one LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, and Shaquille O’Neal (among a host of others) have won during their own premiere seasons.

His best friend and former teammate at Duke, R.J. Barrett, is the biggest threat to the crown, that is before we get to see anyone play in the regular season.

Coby White could push for the hardware as well if he pokes his way into the Chicago Bulls’ starting five. De’Andre Hunter for the Atlanta Hawks and Darius Garland for the Cleveland Cavaliers will also find themselves in the running if their teams end up beating expectations.

Zion, with almost no doubt, has the greatest skillset of any rookie in this year’s class. What would end up hurting his case is if he greatly struggles as a shooter.

Lacking much of a jump shot to write home about, there’s a chance his paint-centric game just isn’t appealing enough to voters.

At this rate, there’s simply too much press surrounding Zion that voters will look to another player. He’s destroyed both defenses thrown his way in the preseason, a trend that seems increasingly likely to continue into the season.

Zion Williamson, Starter in the All-Star Game

In his first year of NBA action, I kind of expect Zion Williamson to make the All-Star Game in some capacity. He’s just a rookie, but some of the things he can do on the court already boost him among the range of the league’s top-25 players.

Fans are going to be the difference-maker on this one.

While veterans have a tendency to pick older players for the team, as they have their say in the voting for All-Star Game reserves, fan voting will be a huge benefit to the 19-year-old phenom.

Zion is quickly becoming one of the most popular players in the game and by the time All-Star voting really gets going, he’ll have played a ton of games in front of a national audience.

The last time a rookie made the All-Star Game was Blake Griffin in 2011. Before him, it was Yao Ming in 2003, who was the last rookie to start in an All-Star Game.

Realistically, Williamson is going to be a huge part of All-Star Weekend as a whole as long as he’s healthy when those few days in February roll around.

For all we know, we might get a chance to see the slam master general himself in this year’s NBA Slam Dunk Contest. It’ll be on the same Chicago floor he scored 29 points on during his second preseason game in the NBA.

Having Williamson in the All-Star Game would be good for the league, as a young, talented rookie in a game usually reserved for the old guard.

Zion Williamson, All-NBA Third Team

If he ends up being named one of the fifteen best players in the league after one season, Zion Williamson could really start turning his young career into something for the storybooks in a hurry.

This means he’s one of the top-15 players in the league entering the first year of his NBA career, a notion that could prove to be completely valid over the next few months.

Very few players in the history of this game have made an All-NBA team during their first season. The list includes names like Larry Bird, Rick Barry, and Oscar Robertson, with most coming before the 1970s.

The last player to do it was Tim Duncan in 1998. He went on to win three MVP awards, six NBA Championships, three Finals MVP awards, made 15 All-Star Games, made ten appearances on the All-NBA First Team, won an NBA title in his second year with the San Antonio Spurs, and is in the Hall of Fame.

Granted, Wilt Chamberlain and Wes Unseld both won Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. Both were also included on the All-NBA First Team list.

It would be quite the historical mark for Zion, the player who’s been pegged as the game’s next-big-thing.

Really, it’s hard to imagine who’s going to find a way to stop Williamson, even this early in his NBA career. His athletic tools are just through the roof.

While there’s too much talent at the top of the league for me to think of Zion as a first or second-teamer, and just a little too much for me to circle him as a darkhorse MVP candidate, he’s showing signs of someone who’s here to make a HUGE splash in his first year of NBA basketball.

In a league where huge “unicorns” who can shoot it from all over the place are the dominant trend, Zion is a refreshing, rim-dominant player who seems apt to destroy offenses across the league. His style is something rare for this generation, granted his style involves using his attributes as a genetic freak (Jrue said it, not me).