There has been a lot of negativity around the New Orleans Pelicans this offseason, and some of it has been aimed at Zion Williamson recently.
We’ve had to hear how the Pelicans didn’t improve, how they screwed up by not re-signing Lonzo Ball and how they didn’t get enough in the Steven Adams/Eric Bledsoe trade.
Sometimes I wonder if any of these people actually watched the Pelicans last season, as Bledsoe was awful and a big reason they underachieved.
I think a lot of these points are debatable, but recently I’ve been seeing some takes about Zion Williamson that are pretty wild.
New Orleans Pelicans: Is Zion Williamson better than Ben Simmons?
Most recently, an NBA fan posted a Tweet about Ben Simmons, who is rumored to be on the trading block, with a list of teams on which he would be the best player.
This led to some speculation that Simmons would be the best player on the New Orleans Pelicans, even better than Zion Williamson.
https://twitter.com/Cavsanada/status/1434966054644719618
Ok, so I am the first to admit that Zion Williamson needs to buy-in on defense, and I think that he will, but let’s not get crazy here.
I do like Ben Simmons a lot, and there have been plenty of horrible takes flying around about him too, but there is no way he is better than Zion, defense or not.
Simmons is an elite defender who can guard 1-5, but that’s pretty much the only area in which he is better than Williamson other than passing and that is debatable when you consider that Simmons was on a much-better team with more scorers than Zion was last season.
There are few players in the history of the NBA that are as efficient a scorer as Zion, who is younger than Simmons and scores nearly twice as many points.
Yes, defense matters, but Zion is a generational scorer and he is just getting started. He was also asked to carry a massive offensive load last season compared to Simmons, which undoubtedly hurt his defense, especially late in games.
Is Simmons better than James Harden? Stephen Curry? Damian Lillard? Because none of them play much defense either but are still considered three of the top players in the league.
The fact is that Zion Williamson is a generational talent and we’ve never really seen anyone like him, whereas Simmons isn’t even the best player on his own team.
I would really love to see the two play together and if the price is right, I’d consider trying to trade for Ben Simmons and making him a small-ball center.
But people seem to have already forgotten how dominant Zion was in his first full season in the league and comparing him to Simmons is just wild.