New Orleans Pelicans: Player Grades for the power forwards.
Power Forwards
When Nicolo Melli is your best rim protector, you are in trouble.
Melli didn’t do much in this one, notching just two points and a rebound and again missing all of his three’s.
Melli hasn’t been able to do the thing he is paid to do, knock down open shots, which is a big part of why the Pels’ offense often stalled. Hopefully Melli will get his shot back, but if not, he doesn’t do much else, so the Pels desperately need more depth at power forward.
Zion Williamson has often been unstoppable in the bubble, and if he were at full strength, things might have gone differently.
But he’s not.
I know Zion is only 20 and I know these circumstances were not ideal, but it was disappointing to see Zion so unprepared to play games. He doesn’t look like the same athlete who was at Duke, was limping through the whole game and lacked his trademark explosiveness.
I know he isn’t 100% but Zion hasn’t run back hard on defense once so far, and it often leads to easy dunks for the other team.
Zion has all of the talent and skill in the world, but it won’t matter if he isn’t in shape and doesn’t play with effort. This loss certainly wasn’t his fault, but if Zion is going to take over the league, he needs to get in better shape and stay that way.