Pelicans: Why Zion Williamson will lead the NBA in free throws

Zion Williamson made his mark on the NBA in his first full season for the New Orleans Pelicans.

The young star was the best post player in the league, putting up otherworldly shooting percentages and proving himself nearly unstoppable.

Teams resorted to fouling Zion Williamson, a lot, which led to him being 3rd in free throw attempts last season.

But next season? He’s going to lead the league.

Pelicans: A full season of point Zion Williamson

Point Zion wasn’t unleashed until April of last season, when Lonzo Ball was out with an injury and Stan Van Gundy wanted to try something new.

The experiment worked, and Zion plowed his way to scoring 27 points per game while attempting 8.6 free throws per game.

Defenses didn’t have an answer other than to pack the paint, double team and foul Zion, as putting him on the line was a safer bet than stopping him in the paint.

Next season we’ll likely get some version of point Zion right away, which means he’ll have a full season of high usage as a ball handler, which should lead to more fouls.

He’s also going to get more calls.

Zion Williamson is going to get the superstar treatment

Zion took a ton of hard fouls last season, something that the Pels’ brass certainly noticed.

After Williamson went down with injury, David Griffin blamed all of the hard fouls, and the fact that the refs let defenders get away with much more on Zion than other stars in the league.

The league took notice as well when one of their young superstars and the future face of the league wasn’t around for his team’s attempt to make the play-in tournament last season.

The NBA wanted Zion in that tournament, as his high profile would have brought even more eyeballs to TVs and they will want to avoid that result again.

I think we’ll see Zion Williamson get more superstar treatment like Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two guys ahead of him in free-throw attempts last season.

Superstars get calls and now that Zion is one, he should get more of them next season, which will lead to 3-4 extra attempts per game, which will be enough to lead the league.