New Orleans Pelicans: Grades for the 111-86 loss to the Phoenix Suns

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Zion Williamson #1 of the New Orleans Pelicans (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

Pelicans vs. Suns: Player Grades for the power forwards

New Orleans Pelicans. ZION WILLIAMSON. D. . Williamson

Zion Williamson had a quiet 20 points after starting out the game hot and looking like he was going to have a big night.

Zion once again led the Pelicans in minutes, almost as punishment after missing some early defensive assignments and closeouts.

One thing is clear: teams are ready for Zion this year and are game planning to stop him.

Zion is going to have to adjust to a lot more double-teams and teams collapsing into the paint, daring the Pelicans to shoot from the outside.

What was concerning in this one is that Zion only grabbed two rebounds after putting up double-doubles in each of the first three games.

He also had a lot of trouble with Deandre Ayton and the minutes with Zion at the five this season have been a disaster.

Part of this is on Zion, and part of it is on Stan Van Gundy, who has to be more creative on how he gets Zion involved in the offense.

F. . Power Forward. New Orleans Pelicans. NICOLO MELLI

Nicolo Melli made his first three-pointer of the season and it actually raised his 3-point average to 14.3 percent.

He is not an NBA rotation player, end of story.