New Orleans Pelicans: Why isn’t Zion Williamson getting more shots?

The New Orleans Pelicans have one of the most unstoppable offensive weapons in the league in Zion Williamson and it’s times to start acting like it.

Zion is currently 15th in the NBA in scoring, getting 24.4 points per game in 32.7 minutes.

Even though Zion Williamson has been one of the most efficient offensive players in the league with an effective field goal percentage of 61.2 percent, and playing five more minutes per game than last season on average, he is actually taking the same number of shots.

Why?

If you look at the top-15 NBA scorers, Zion Williamson is dead last in shot attempts with 15.5 per game. Guys like Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum all take over 20 shots per game.

Brandon Ingram takes more shots than Zion Williamson. So do Nikola Vucevic, De’Aaron Fox and Julius Randle.

D’Angelo Russell and Victor Oladipo get more, and even bricklayer Andre Drummond averages the same number of shots per game as Zion Williamson.

This needs to change.

New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson needs more shots

Zion is the Pelicans’ best offensive weapon right now and the offense should be running through him when he is on the floor.

Stan Van Gundy has been doing this more lately but it hasn’t really translated to more shots. Teams are focusing their defensive gameplan around stopping Zion Williamson from killing them in the lane so SVG is going to have to get more creative.

One thing is clear, he has to keep Zion moving, as the Pels are very easy to defend when things slow down and they go to isolation ball.

I’d like to see Zion coming off screens with the ball in his hand and just keep going. The high pick-and-roll with Adams and Ingram has been effective but Zion needs to be the beneficiary of some of those screens as well.

This could also mean Zion Williamson jacking a few more 3-pointers per game until teams feel the need to step out and defend them.

The Pels have to keep Zion moving and throw the opposition a bunch of different looks so that they aren’t so predictable and easy to defend.

However it happens, it is clear that Zion Williamson needs to be taking at least 20 shots per game, which is on par with the other stars of the NBA.