Pelicans: Could Zion Williamson win the potential NBA 1-on-1 tournament?

Conversation swirled on media day about a potential 1-on-1 tournament among the NBA’s best and Zion Williamson would be the hardest out from New Orleans.

Much of the focus surrounding the New Orleans Pelicans currently surrounds the team’s ability to make a playoff push. However, Zion Williamson gives the team the chance to win a different kind of championship.

While it’s not an official event and might never be, Zion might be one of the best players in the league suited to win 1-on-1 basketball competitions.

During All-Star Weekend’s Media Day, a handful of players were asked by Bleacher Report who they would most like to face in that kind of competition.

Responses were mixed. Russell Westbrook trashed the concept, Bam Adebayo chose his Miami Heat teammate in Jimmy Butler, and Devonte’ Graham wanted to play Damian Lillard, simply because he likes the way Dame Dolla plays the game.

Zion Williamson’s response? He’ll play anyone. Personally, I like his odds in this potential format.

One of the things that’ll really help the young forward leap ahead of his competition is his insane athleticism, which combines quickness, verticality, and physicality like the game of basketball has never seen at the NBA level.

"“His second jump is ridiculous,” Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said to Christian Clark of Nola.com. “I’ve never seen anyone that has a second jump quicker or more accurate than his. He shoots it, and he has a good feel of where it’s going to come off if it’s not going in. And I think the most important thing is he plays all of his shots as a miss. He doesn’t assume that any of them are going in. He’s on the floor and back up trying to create rebounding position on every shot. That’s why I think he gets a lot of them back.”"

Through ten career games with the New Orleans Pelicans and a whole lot of televised competitions at Duke University, Williamson has shown the ability to move grown men out of the way like he’s some sort of machine.

No one in this league is going to take an easy out, but trying to knock Zion out of his potential tournament could be next to impossible unless someone gets really hot from beyond the perimeter.

How it works (in my head): Each team gets one participant, except the teams with the best record in the league, who bring two players each. The 32 players are each then randomly shuffled into their eventual five-round tournament. Games are played by ones and twos to a final score of 11, though players must win by two and they can’t win on a free throw. Of course, games are played in the half-court and shots that hit the rim must be taken back behind the arc.

Though I didn’t randomize the opponents for this particular article, I picked some opponents that I thought would make sense for each round and as representatives of each team.

Round One: Zion Williamson vs. Aaron Gordon

Starting with an opponent on a team in a similar position in the league, Williamson gets the first round draw against Aaron Gordon from the Orlando Magic. Attempting to avenge his contested finishes to his pair of controversial, final-round losses in the dunk contest, Gordon battles like a bag of nails to try to knock off Williamson.

However, Zion’s ability to defend Gordon inside and create baskets using his speed alone would cause all sorts of mismatch issues for Gordon. While the game would be fun to watch and look close from the beginning, eventually Williamson’s skills would prove too much for the Magic’s forward to contain in a one-on-one setting.

Final Score: 11 to 7, Zion defeats Aaron Gordon. 

Round Two: Zion Williamson vs. Damian Lillard

In a match-up that Jrue Holiday would love to play, Zion gets the second round draw in a game that feels like a bizarre mismatch between two players who do pretty different things. Nevertheless, the game has the potential to thrill on the offensive end.

After Lillard three-point-shoots his way to a first-round win, the Portland Trail Blazers’ guard gets a hard challenge in a wild second-round matchup.

Already wrecking the Trail Blazers in his team’s 138-117 victory, Williamson contributed 31 points on 10-of-17 shooting in a game where the Pelicans looked tougher than leather.

Nicknamed “Logo Lillard” for his ability to make three-point shots from way behind the arc, Lillard would be a threat to run the table if he got a hot hand during this tournament, but playing someone like Williamson could theoretically use his speed and size to overmatch the star.

Final Score: 11 to 8, Zion defeats Damian Lillard.

Round Three:  Zion Williamson vs. Ben Simmons

Competition is starting to get tight and Zion Williamson meets one of the people who defined his career path as an athletic, but rim-centric modern NBA player. Meeting a player like Simmons in the second round seems like a cruel fate, but Zion is one of the few who could take the elite interior guard in this isolation-based format.

While Ben Simmons acts as more of a point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers in his current role, his ability to battle strong and elite players on the defensive end would make him a very hard player to knock out of the tournament.

However, Zion battles hard and Simmons’s lack-of-range makes it too hard to keep ahead of Williamson. In a game with the most missed free throws in the tournament, Simmons takes Williamson into overtime but falls just short.

Final Score: 13 to 11, Zion defeats Ben Simmons.

Semi-Finals: Zion Williamson vs. Luka Dončić

Things get tight even tighter as Zion heads into the semi-finals. While Simmons was a physical challenger on the interior, battling Dallas Mavericks‘ star Luka Dončić will require a lot of hustle from the Pelicans rookie.

Guarding a future MVP is a heck of an ask, especially someone as creative and with the toolkit of Luka, who would test Williamson’s ability to guard on the perimeter. However, Luka can’t drain all his threes and Zion does an admirable job covering him on defense.

Coming down to a crucial stop and a play in the post, Zion finds a way to get by one of the league’s brightest young stars.

Final Score: 11 to 9, Zion defeats Luka Dončić.

Championship: Zion Williamson vs. LeBron James

To be the best you have to beat the best. After eliminating Giannis Antetokounmpo in his own semi-final match, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James will be the final totem standing in Zion’s way between himself and isolation basketball glory.

James would show a lot of fire in this theoretical competition. After knocking out his Los Angeles Lakers’ teammate in Anthony Davis early in the tournament (I figured Davis losing in my fictitious narrative would make all of our Pelicans fans smile), many think he’s got the best chance to win the whole thing unless a pesky rookie in Zion Williamson gets in the way.

The game against Antetokounmpo was no snoozer for LeBron, who is clearly tired and taxed from the outing. Zion has a little more gas left in the tank, but like anyone else, he would struggle to match the basketball wisdom of the 35-year-old, three-time NBA champion.

While the game takes extra baskets to finish, the second greatest player of all-time finishes Zion off on a deep three after making a defining stop on the other end around the rim.

Final Score: 16 to 14, LeBron James defeats Zion. 

In a touching moment that overtakes Twitter for the night, Zion stands quietly before LeBron approaches, saying, “good work out there, rook. You lost this one, but you’re next up.”