New Orleans Pelicans: Grades for 113-80 win over the OKC Thunder
Pelicans vs. Thunder: Player Grades for the power forwards
Power Forwards
C. . Williamson. New Orleans Pelicans. ZION WILLIAMSON
Zion Williamson had a quiet night after getting into foul trouble early. The Pelicans didn’t really need him and SVG was probably tempted to just leave him on the bench for the second half after the Pels pulled away.
One thing Zion has to improve is his closeouts on shooters. Two of his fouls last night came when Zion was out of control closing out on a shooter.
The foul that sent him to the bench was on a 3-point attempt by Darius Bazley, who was absolutely broke last night.
Zion has to know the situation. There was no reason to rush out on Bazley, who hadn’t hit a shot at that point (and went 0-3 from long range overall) and was no real threat.
It was a dumb foul, which the Pels cannot afford on nights when they are playing a good team.
. Power Forward. New Orleans Pelicans. NICOLO MELLI. D-
Nicolo Melli made a shot! He’s now up to a scorching 22.2 percent from 3-point range.
Sorry to keep piling on the guy, but he’s not an NBA rotation player unless the Pels can play OKC every night.
Watching Mike Muscala, Aleksej Pokusevski and Isaiah Roby last night made me realize just how bad Melli has been.