Pelicans: Lonzo Ball and Zion Williamson could become NBA’s most deadly duo

Amidst a large pile of young New Orleans Pelicans players, Lonzo Ball and Zion Williamson seem like a pairing destined to devastate opponents.

The New Orleans Pelicans finally have Zion Williamson on the floor, which is great news for a plethora of reasons. One of the team’s first priorities, of course, is to find out which pieces fit with the rookie and which don’t; fortunately, Lonzo Ball seems like a great fit.

Importantly, the duo is super young and has a lot of room left to grow. Zion is just 19-years-old and won’t be able to legally sip an adult beverage until 2021. Lonzo Ball is 22-years-old and playing just his third season of professional basketball.

Destined to become one of the great transition basketball teams in the league by season’s end, Ball and Williamson are a great compliment for each other’s skillsets, a connection that’s already looking pretty fluid on the basketball court.

On the ledger for both happens to be their incredible court vision, both displaying the passing acumen that it simply an underrated asset in the bag for both.

As early as preseason, however, we got our first taste of what the duo could do on a basketball court, as their opening alley-oop was one of Zion’s first big social media moments in New Orleans.

When ESPN’s Andrew Lopez asked Williamson about the alley-oops between him and Ball, the rookie made it clear that it’s going to be in the offense.

"“We’ll be seeing a lot of those, too, but he might not finish them,” Zion Williamson said about a two-on-one look in a scrimmage. “He might lay it in.”"

While we’ve seen Lonzo make a lot of nice passing plays this season, Zion showed an elevated floor sense during his debut that we saw in limited spots at Duke, but it looked even more inventive in a Pelicans uniform.

With the transition looks raising in importance as Zion Williamson emerges, it’s good to know that he’s not only lethal as a scorer in transition but shows the ability to play-make during those opportunities.

Importantly, if Alvin Gentry remains the head coach for the long haul, the New Orleans Pelicans are going to keep wanting to play fast and space the floor for a heaping of triples.

Ball and Williamson are both incredibly fast players who slot logically into the coach’s pace-and-space system; both play with a full-speed-ahead mentality, showing incredible potential in transition when they get more comfortable on the court.

For Zion Williamson’s return to action to have early success, it’s best that Lonzo Ball keeps up his hot play of late.

Playing his best season to date, Lonzo Ball has continued to not only post eye-catching performances on the court but his passing is starting to look pretty elite.

Per Cleaning the Glass, Ball ranks in the 83rd percentile in assist percentage (28.6%) and 91st in assist-to-usage ratio (1.30) among his position group.

During Zion’s debut, the duo did display natural chemistry when sharing the floor. When Zion went on his three-minute wrecking run of the San Antonio Spurs, it was Lonzo Ball feeding him threes and lobs inside, allowing the big to go to work.

While Zion finished with 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists, it was his teammate who actually did a lot of the creating to put the Pelicans in a position to battle late into the game.

On the night, Lonzo Ball was probably the best player on the floor, finishing with 14 points, 12 assists, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals while shooting 3-of-6 from three-point range.

Ultimately, the two made each other better in their first pairing on an NBA stage and could look even better if they’re able to create opportunities transition, as their speed and size are almost impossible to stop for defenses on their heels.

Both owning incredible two-way potential, Lonzo Ball and Zion Williamson could be incredibly hard to manage for other NBA teams.

While the offensive potential of Zion Williamson and Lonzo Ball is exhilarating, it’s going to be their ability to chase teams on the defensive end that’ll define the ceiling for the pairing.

Neither player is a particularly fun matchup for an opposing player.

Jumping off the page as a physical specimen, Zion Williamson is 6’6″, 285 LBS but moves faster than most of the players in the league.

Over the last handful of days, a lot has been made of Williamson’s impressive second jump, which he showcased when missing a layup, then outworking Jakob Pöltl for the rebound and putback during his insane debut run.

Lonzo Ball is pretty big for a point guard, which is why I didn’t think Magic Johnson drawing parallels between himself and the point guard was too far out of line. Ball stands 6’6″, 190 LBS with long arms and plenty of muscle on his frame.

Additionally, Ball has the speed and coordination it takes to be an elite ballhandler in the NBA. That’s why his 18.5% turnover rate is so confounding.

Granted, he’s having the highest-usage season of his career at 19.8%, while really starting to take control of the New Orleans Pelicans offense.

While Ball has 37 games under his belt to control his turnover issues, Zion committed 5 turnovers in his debut and didn’t look particularly comfortable controlling the rock until his dominant run in the fourth quarter.

More concerning than holding onto the basketball will be their ability to control opposing transition offenses.

This season, the Pelicans rank in the 24th in transition points per 100 positions and rank in the 21st in transition opportunities allowed.

Far too frequently, the Pelicans are simply allowing teams to run in transition and not giving them anything to worry about when attacking the other end.

While the team started the season as a complete mess on defense and have since been a more middling group, they’ve been flat terrible when trying to cover up opponents in transition, which is surprising considering the amount of speed on this team.

However, with the daunting speed and athleticism of both Ball and Williamson, it seems logical that the team could solve their transition defense issues by the start of the 2020-2021 season, if not by the end of this campaign.

The New Orleans Pelicans have a long way still to go in the 2019-2020 season and while the fit with Zion Williamson wasn’t perfect out of the gate, it seems like his teammates have a lot of potentials to gel together as they progress through the campaign.

Pairing Zion Williamson and Lonzo Ball together seem like a natural fit that could really cause teams to lose their way when trying play matchups. The biggest question for the New Orleans Pelicans is if they can get the duo to round into ideal form by the end of this season.