Zion Williamson was surprisingly high in recent power forward rankings

Zion Williamson missed the entire season for the New Orleans Pelicans last year, but the hype train hasn’t stopped rolling.

His return will be one of the most anticipated in the NBA, as he will lead a well-known cast of names on the “all returning from injury team.”

It may have been awhile since Zion Williamson played basketball but people haven’t forgotten how dominant he was as he scored 27 points per game on historic efficiency as a 20-year-old in just his second year in the league.

He was recently named by NBA executives as one of the top young players to build around, so even though he has been hampered with injuries, people still believe in Zion’s talent.

Still, it was surprising to see him ranked so highly CBS’s recent power forward rankings. Here are the top-10 power forwards in the league according to CBS:

• Jerami Grant
• Evan Mobley
• Jaren Jackson Jr.
• Draymond Green
• Pascal Siakam
• Karl-Anthony Towns
• Zion Williamson
• LeBron James
• Kevin Durant
• Giannis Antetokounmpo

There were a few surprises on this list, and Zion Williamson coming in 4th was one of them.

New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson’s rank among power forwards

According to CBS, Zion is just behind Giannis, Durant and LeBron in the power forward rankings, and it would be hard to argue otherwise, as these might be the best three players in the world not named Nikola Jokic.

I was somewhat surprised that Zion got this kind of love, as Karl-Anthony Towns was an All-Star last season as well as 3rd-team All-NBA and Siakam also had another big season for the Raptors. Don’t get me wrong, I think Zion Williamson is better, but these guys both played big minutes last season while Zion was on the bench in street clothes.

This just shows exactly how much hype there still is around Williamson, as he didn’t step on the floor last season and is still ranked above a guy who made the All-NBA team.

But these types of rankings don’t mean anything until we see it on the court, and we won’t have to wait long, as training camp and preseason are right around the corner. Can Zion finally live up to the hype?