Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans is establishing himself as one of the most dominant players in the league at breakneck speed.
The NBA’s annual all-star game is right around the corner and you know what that means on the Internet. Voracious fanbases are pitted against one another, each side trying to exalt their respective franchise players and guard them from criticism while, at times, unnecessarily putting down other fantastic players.
The nature of sports is to defend your team no matter the cost, but that can lead to the disparagement of other players who circumstantially become seen as rivals because of events like the all-star game and the selection process behind it.
This might be the case for Zion Williamson. Williamson’s impressive showings on a nightly basis are becoming the norm. New graphics pop up every game comparing him to generational greats like Shaquille O’Neal, history-making superstars like LeBron James, and budding trailblazers like Luka Doncic.
Williamson’s dominance is well on its way to becoming an NBA mainstay and, although he is rightly lauded for it, there are also times when it is forgotten that the New Orleans Pelicans forward has played less than 50 games in the NBA.
I am guilty of doing this myself. To be clear, the goal of this article is not to suggest that Williamson should be immune to criticism. No one should be, let alone a player that a franchise is banking on to lead them to unprecedented heights.
Zion Williamson has a lot of improvement to do, particularly on the defensive end as I have written about before. But because so much is expected of Williamson and he is so good this early, it’s easy to get accustomed to his positives and look past them to break down the negatives.
It’s easy to nitpick but don’t do it at the expense of enjoying what Zion is doing right now, which is amazing.
New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson is one of NBA’s best in isolation
One particular stat that I think does deserve a closer look, though, is Williamson’s utter superiority in isolation plays. The extent to which Williamson outdoes his opponents in these situations is laughable—especially when you consider he hasn’t even played the equivalent of a full NBA season.
Williamson is in the 93rd percentile of players whose possessions are made up of at least 10 percent isos. That’s just below Kevin Durant and better than James Harden, the NBA’s elite isolation scorer. In layman’s terms, Williamson is close to unguardable when he is one-on-one. That can be attributed to a few reasons.
Williamson is a walking mismatch or, as pro wrestler Scott Steiner would say, a genetic freak. He’s faster and more explosive than most bigs, while being a lot stronger than any other type of player. Williamson’s handle is also fairly tight for his size, having developed that part of his game when he wasn’t yet a force of nature, and difficult to stop because of his low center of gravity. Lastly, Williamson is an elite finisher, regularly displaying his dexterity at the basket. When he’s near the rim, you don’t expect him to miss.
In the Pelicans’ loss against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, Williamson’s entire arsenal was on display. In one of his best plays of the game, Williamson faces up Kristaps Porzingis. Let’s not forget that Porzingis is 7-foot-3, but Williamson goes around him like he’s not there, finishes with the beautiful reverse dunk, and gets the and-one.
Williamson is extremely nimble for someone with his build and his athleticism will probably only improve as the season continues. The difference between how he looked last season, at the start of this year, and now is night-and-day.
The Pelicans forward had a similar finish against Mavs center Willie Cauley-Stein earlier in the game, who is no small man in his own right. Cauley-Stein is a legit 7-footer at a sturdy 240 pounds, but Williamson goes around him like he’s not there. His body control is legit.
But Williamson can also go through players. No matter how tall Porzingis is, he can’t stop Williamson once he gets into his body. The former Duke star invades his defenders’ space and absorbs contact easily. In the Pelicans’ game against the Mavericks, Williamson shot eleven free throws and had three consecutive and-one plays.
In isolations, Williamson scores 65 percent of the time and he attempts free throws 23 percent of the time. Those are inhumane numbers for anyone, but especially for someone with Williamson’s amount of experience.
New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson needs more shots
It was shocking to me to see the Pelicans only feed Williamson five shots in the entire second half against the Dallas Mavericks. Williamson was a perfect 10-for-10 from the field in the first half and only missed one shot—a three-pointer—the entire game. He should have continued to be New Orleans’ go-to guy the entire game, as he will likely be for his entire Pelicans career.
Zion only took 15 shots total on a night when he was virtually unstoppable. This cannot continue to happen, as Zion is the Pels’ best option on offense even if he doesn’t end up taking the shot.
If you look at the top-15 scorers in the league, Zion Williamson gets the fewest number of shot attempts on the list. Zion is getting over 24 points on 15.3 attempts per game. Luka Doncic takes 21 shots per game as a point of reference. What would Zion’s scoring average look like if he were getting this number of attempts?
Williamson is quickly going to become one of the faces of the NBA. That’ll come with plenty of praise, but also plenty of criticism. That’s why we should not take him for granted this early and make sure to enjoy his growth while we can.