New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson is an all-star but his defense is not

Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans didn’t have a great defensive effort against the Chicago Bulls and that is putting it lightly.

The New Orleans Pelicans suffered a disappointing setback that left Stan Van Gundy fuming when they lost 124-128 at home to the Chicago Bulls.

The Pelicans made a late run in the fourth quarter that saw the game come down to whether Chicago could make its free throws. It was a classic case of too little, too late. New Orleans were a disaster early on, especially on defense, and were always fighting back from underneath after that.

Van Gundy noticeably cut a frustrated figure in the wake of the Pels’ fifteenth loss of the season. New Orleans’ new head coach was as direct as he’s ever been, stating that his players need to hold themselves accountable and pride themselves on playing good defense. For a coach with a defense-first ethos, his anger was palpable.

Van Gundy arrived at the Smoothie King Center to fix the Pelicans’ defensive woes. His teams have mostly had top ranked defenses, but he hasn’t been able to figure it out so far. In my opinion, he should shoulder part of the blame simply because this remains such a big question mark 35 games into the season.

New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson needs to get better on defense

However, the players should not be exempt. All season long, Van Gundy has preached about how his main players need to step it up on defense. The only one who has answered that call—and probably hung the phone up before the conversation was over—is Lonzo Ball, but even his defensive performances have been intermittent.

Prior to the start of the season, I wrote about how Zion Williamson still needs to improve a lot on defense. His athleticism is surprisingly not an easy fit on this end of the floor, but his level of effort, awareness, and discipline also needed to trend upwards.

Zion Williamson has been better than last year so far, but that wasn’t too hard. He will still sin from time to time—a lazy closeout here, an unnecessary gamble there—but the improvement is noticeable. Still, the Pels need much more from him.

Make no mistake about it, I don’t get any glee from “picking” on Williamson. I probably consider him New Orleans’ best player already and he holds the key to the city. This franchise will go as far as ZionWilliamson wants; however, those lofty expectations also come with being held accountable, just as Van Gundy said.

Williamson was all over the place in the Pelicans’ loss to the Bulls. Their new coach Billy Donovan has already consolidated a dynamic offensive identity in the windy city and he was astute to pick on Williamson defensively. He might be an all-star offensively, but still needs to make huge strides on the other end of the floor.

Chicago repeatedly exposed Williamson in pick-and-roll situations using one of Thaddeus Young or Patrick Williams. This game posed an interesting test for Williamson, as opponents haven’t really actively gone after him so far. But if this was to be graded as an exam, then he probably failed.

The signs were there from the get-go. In the first play of the game, the Bulls had Williams screen for Coby White. Williamson was on Williams, whereas Eric Bledsoe was defending the Chicago point guard. Williams’ screen is pretty good, but the Pels forward is unable to either delay White long enough for Bledsoe to recover or play the passing lane properly to avoid a pass to Williams.

Williamson has struggled defending the pick-and-roll ever since he got into the league and this game exemplified those difficulties.

The Bulls continued to pick on Williamson throughout the game. Usually, he’s the one who does the bullying but it was him getting stuffed in a locker this time around.

This was particularly apparent in the second quarter. Chicago went to the same thing three times in a row on Williamson and scored all three times. Young, Williamson’s man on defense, had three consecutive makes in the pick-and-roll.

All of those possessions looked pretty similar. Young would set a pick for whoever was handling the ball, Williamson would get sucked out too far, and leave an easy path for Young to score. On one occasion, he was even gifted an and-one opportunity.

The Pelicans need to step it up on defense as soon as possible. This is imperative in their playoff hunt. Accountability is key and it’s time for New Orleans to start playing as such.