New Orleans Pelicans: How Zion Williamson can win MVP next season

New Orleans Pelicans: How Zion Williamson can win MVP

Finish in the top-4 in the Western Conference

All of the MVP candidates were on good teams that made the playoffs last season without having to go through the play-in tournament.

If the Pels are hovering around the same place they were last season, it probably won’t matter what Zion Williamson does. The only reason Jokic won MVP as a 6th seed is that he carried them there himself with a bad team that had all of its other top guys injured.

That hopefully won’t be the case with the New Orleans Pelicans, so for Zion to get any consideration, he has to take the team to the next level, which means finishing in the top-4 and being considered a contender to win the West.

If Zion is healthy and the Pelicans make a big leap as a team, he’ll be seen as the primary reason in the eyes of voters, and the Pels will be getting a lot more attention in the national media.

Even if the Pelicans were to make the playoffs next season as an eight or nine seed, it probably won’t be enough even if Zion stays healthy all year and is near the top of the league in scoring.

It will take a combination of good health, individual domination and team success for Zion to emerge as an MVP candidate, so it’s a long shot, but definitely not impossible.