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New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson will play in his first NBA All-Star Game this weekend. NBA pundits are raving about Williamson’s development this season that was fast-tracked by coach Stan Van Gundy’s strategy of making the Duke product a playmaker in the Pelicans offense.
For the first time since the New Orleans Pelicans acquired him, Williamson was finally given permission to be a leader and decision-maker on the floor on Jan. 30.
Zion Williamson: The point forward
From the moment Zion Williamson started to handle the ball more often and became a part-time floor general, he blossomed. The New Orleans Pelicans started to beat teams they never had any chance of beating before.
The Pels are far from being a juggernaut as their 15-21 record shows, but they are going through the growing pains that many title contenders had to go through. Soon, they will be title contenders if they play their cards right and take the time to work with Zion Williamson in the offseason.
In his first 16 games this campaign, Williamson averaged 23.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists a night. Since making the shift, Williamson has put up 27.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game.
He’s not the superstar that the experts expect him to become yet, but he is getting there. What does Zion Williamson need to do to continue his evolution into a bonafide superstar? Three steps come to mind and these are non-negotiables.
1. A jump shot
In his rookie debut last year, Zion Williamson created quite a buzz when he scored 22 points in 18 minutes while making four 3-pointers. That made many think that maybe Williamson had a long-range shot that we rarely saw from him as an amateur. A year later, we’re still waiting for Williamson to showcase that type of shooting range.
If he were Shaquille O’Neal’s size, Zion would not be looked at and criticized for not having a jumper. But since he’s 6-foot-7 and plays from the outside in, it’s almost necessary that he develops some sort of jump shot to keep defenses from packing it inside.
For now, Zion Williamson can get away without a long-range game. But someday, he will need that jump shot once teams figure out how they can stop him from getting to the rim.
One of the most promising signs that Zion Williamson can someday make the outside shot is his improvement from the free-throw line. In his first 17 games this season, Williamson was making 66.7 percent of his shots from the foul line. In his next 17 games, he converted on 72.0 percent of his free throws while never shying away from contact in the paint.
If Karl Malone can become a consistent shooter from mid-range, there’s no reason to believe that Zion Williamson can’t do the same. A reliable jump shot will certainly help Williamson take the next step in his growth.
2. Grab more rebounds
Zion Williamson has often been compared to Charles Barkley, the Hall of Fame power forward who ruled the paint at the generously listed height of 6-foot-6. Though shorter and not as stocky as Williamson, Barkley was a rebounding force, leading the league in that category at one time and averaging 11.7 caroms a game for his career.
Looking at Zion Williamson, one would think that he should be averaging more than 10 rebounds a game at least. But in his first 58 games as a pro (24 as a rookie), Williamson is pulling down an embarrassingly low 6.8 rebounds a game. For someone of his height and heft (284 lbs), he is expected to produce much more than that.
No less than Barkley himself demanded that Zion Williamson should do more work on the glass.
“I went 14 straight years where I averaged double-digit rebounds,” Charles Barkley explained on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “He’s [Williamson] a lot more explosive than me, but he only uses it on offense. He’s got to be a better rebounder.”
Zion Williamson has one of the quickest second jumps we've seen in the history of the game, something that many have pointed out before. So it's quite baffling that he's not a better rebounder than he is right now.
Part of the problem appears to be his lack of interest on the defensive end (more on this later). As explosive as he is on the offensive glass, Williamson seems disinterested in putting in the work on the defensive end. He’s averaging just 4.5 defensive rebounds a game this season, when he should be at eight or more.
“There’s a lot of guys who go out there and they get you 25, 30 points and have no other impact on the game — that’s an All-Star, not a superstar,” Barkley added on the podcast.
Zion Williamson is an All-Star right now but to make the leap to superstar status, he has to grind it out and do more of the dirty work.
3. Play defense
This is perhaps the biggest challenge of Zion Williamson’s career so far. When watching Williamson on the defensive end, it’s easy to see the difference in his energy level from the offensive side. Too many times, he’s late on closeouts and is easily beaten to the lane by his defensive assignment.
Williamson can often be seen lumbering around on defense and seems to wait for help to come and rescue him for his lapses. In contrast, his speed and ability to jump out of the gym are very evident when the New Orleans Pelicans are on offense.
Not every great player is a great defender, as Magic Johnson showed us, but Zion Williamson has all the tools to be a very good one but he appears to be less engaged defensively.
The Pelicans brass acquired Steven Adams in the offseason even though he somewhat mimics Williamson’s lack of outside shooting, particularly to help mask the sophomore forward’s defensive deficiencies. Though he is sometimes seen making huge defensive plays with a highlight-worthy block, Zion Williamson doesn’t do this that often and he seems to pick his spots.
Part of the issue might be conditioning. Williamson may need to shed a few dozen pounds to be able to handle the nightly grind on both ends of the floor. He’s a good kid with an excellent work ethic and the pandemic may have limited the offseason work that Williamson could have done to improve his conditioning.
Zion Williamson can be a solid defender, and if he wants to reach the ceiling of his own superstardom, he will have to improve defensively.
All signs point to him getting better and at just 20 years old, Zion Williamson has time to reach superstardom at a very early age. We just need to be patient and wait for him to get there.
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