Pelicans in ESPN’s top 100: Is Zion Williamson ranked too high?

Is the Pelicans’ Zion Williamson ranked too high in ESPN’s Top 100 players?

The New Orleans Pelicans had several players on ESPN’s top 100 list, including Lonzo Ball, Steven Adams and Zion Williamson.

Some people were upset about Lonzo’s ranking, which they felt was too high, but how about Zion?

Lonzo was ranked 54th on the list, which drew a lot of criticism considering guys like Blake Griffin, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine were ranked lower.

This seemed fair to me based on a number of factors, but what about Zion Williamson, does he deserve his lofty ranking?

There are certainly some arguments to be made (the whole point of hit list by the way) but let’s take a look at how Zion Williamson stacks up against the players who feel they were snubbed.

New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson’s ranking on ESPN top 100 players

Zion Williamson came in at 19th on ESPN’s top 100 players list, which is pretty high considering he has only played 24 games in the NBA.

https://twitter.com/espn/status/1336679785477656576

But this list is based partially on potential and predicting the future, and if you watched Zion in those 24 games, you know the future is bright indeed.

However, Paul George, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kyrie Irving, Russell Westbrook and Kemba Walker probably disagree. Let’s break these down.

Paul George and KAT are both amazing All-NBA players, but both of their teams would trade them in a heartbeat for Zion, sorry. Neither has won anything and have proven to be much more difficult players to build around than Zion (so far). I’d take Zion over either of them.

Kyrie Irving is also an All-NBA talent when he is healthy, which may never happen again. Even when healthy he is a one-dimensional ball hog who can’t defend and causes lockerroom problems everywhere he goes. I’ll take Zion, thanks.

Russell Westbrook is another guy who puts up big numbers on teams that never go too far. He has a solid argument against Zion except for his team just spent the offseason desperately trying to trade him because no one in the league wants to play with him and he makes $40 million a season. Pass.

Kemba Walker is injured and probably won’t even play at the beginning of the season, if at all.

In other words, Zion Williamson is ranked right where he belongs. He hasn’t done it yet, but he has the skills to take over the league and ESPN can’t ignore that because he hasn’t played much.