“My teammates expect more from me. I expect more from myself,” Zion Williamson said following New Orleans Pelicans“44-point defeat against Lakers in the NBA the inaugural semi-finals of the in-season tournament on December 7. He was honored. You could hear it in his voice as he sat at the podium, dejected, frustrated and maybe even a little embarrassed.
This match, for all intents and purposes, was the closest Williamson came to experiencing the urgency and adrenaline of a match. NBA playoff atmosphere, and he egged on 13 points and two rebounds in 26 painfully lazy minutes.
He was not up to the magnitude of the moment. Didn’t take any initiative. “I ran” across the ground as if taking a leisure walk. I backed up on defense several times while showing the off-ball awareness of the guy on a lunchtime run at LA Fitness playing with his headphones on.
But he took responsibility. He said: “I just have to be more aggressive. » And that’s exactly what he did, to his credit. It started in New Orleans’ next game, when Williamson scored 36 points in a win over the Timber wolvesand since then, he has continued to slide down the slopes.
Overall, Williamson is averaging over 22 points and five assists on 62% true shooting since that IST loss, and the Pelicans are one of two teams to crack the top five in terms of scoring. attacks, defense and sharpness over this same period. The other is the Boston Celticswho obviously qualify as title contenders.
Is it time to start looking at the Pelicans from a similar perspective? Only if the Williamson we’ve seen over the past three months is anything to go by will show up in the playoffs, where he never set foot in the first four years of his career. He missed New Orleans’ Play-In tournament wins and first-round series against Phoenix in 2022, as well as their play-in loss to the Thunder last season.
There’s reason to believe Williamson is here to stay. For starters, just take one look at him to know he’s in great shape. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently noted that Williamson has lost 25 pounds since December, and if you pay attention, it shows. Williamson’s energy – on both sides, I might add – has never been higher than it is right now. He is in competition. He looks focused. Even angry. Like a guy who is on a mission, who has heard enough criticism.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Williamson looked unstoppable throughout this stretch. He’s basically the point guard for New Orleans. Only Giannis Antetokounmpo scores more points in the paint, so he guarantees a collapse and kick at a minimum. More often than not, he uses the leads given to him by sagging defenders to take one or two powerful dribbles and explode to the rim himself. He takes off as fast and as hard as anyone in the league.
The key is how quickly he attacks. It’s when he starts monitoring too much that he can get into trouble. In general, the more Williamson evaluates the board in front of him, the more likely the defense is to anticipate his path and, if possible, block him. He had been doing too much for a while. The rhythm dribbles like James Hardentrying to beat the guys with the sneaky handles.
Now it runs like the muscle car that it is. He revs his engine while waiting for the green light, which the Pelicans strive to give him in the form of preferred matchups, and when that light comes on, he is standing on gas. If you’re in the way, that’s your problem.
During New Orleans’ victory against the Clippers last Friday, poor Ivica Zubac ended up on Williamson several times, and he got crushed each time.
As you can see, whether it’s his own creation, off-ball cuts, or offensive rebounds, Williamson doesn’t do anything passively. He is always strong. It chases vertical detonation like Steph Curry chases jump shots. He looks for any opportunity to take off.
You can’t defend him when he’s in this mode. Slouch, and he takes the lead. Play it tight and it dominates you. When playoff basketball comes around, it’s all about forcing defenses to make tough decisions. Do you double Nikola Jokic and let him pick you apart as a passer, or cover him alone and watch him bully the poor sap in front of him for 40?
With Williamson, there’s no good way to cover him if he’s on top, especially as he’s developed as a passer; New Orleans has shooters all around it, and you don’t see as many of them Brandon Ingram isolation, which sometimes stagnates and neutralizes Williamson’s aggressiveness.
The Pelicans run very low pick and rolls for Williamson, putting him so close to the rim early in the action that it’s impossible to stop him from rising. One dribble, whether his defender runs over the top or goes under the screen, and he is already allowed to take off.
And, again, Williamson has been legitimately defending for a while now. He ordered Kawhi Leonard duty throughout the aforementioned Clippers victory (he covered for it for most of the game), and he delivered.
If Williamson can take on a major defensive assignment like Leonard, who is too powerful for an Ingram or Herb Jones, that’s a big problem for the Pelicans in a potential playoff run. Now Jones and Ingram and Trey Murphy are able to deploy their length around the perimeter and as a result, the Pelicans are damn difficult to break through.
Entering play on Tuesday, New Orleans is behind the Clippers for the No. 4 seed, with the tiebreaker already clinched. A first-round clash is certainly possible, if not likely. If that happens, keep this in mind: Williamson, in four games against the Clippers this season, averaged 24.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, five assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 52 .1%.
As I said above, there is plenty of reason to believe that Williamson, as long as he stays healthy, will show up and show up in the postseason. Mentality. The way it is deployed. His conditioning. But until we actually see him on the big stage, questions will remain. This is a guy who has missed more games than he has played in his career. A guy who was in and out of shape. A guy who, at one point, was starting to be considered a potential trade candidate.
Forget if he could play in the playoffs; people were starting to wonder if he could even last in the league. If he ever wanted to take his health and conditioning seriously enough to reach his virtually limitless potential.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen glimpses of greatness. The guy is a two-time All-Star. He was one of the league’s best players the only other time he played more than 30 games (2020-21 season) before this year.
But this time it’s different.
He’s older now. The Pelicans are legit. This is not the time for domestic money. It’s time to earn your money. Williamson – while it’s true that he isn’t covered the same way when he plays well as when he doesn’t – has appealed to those of us who have watched him from the start. He once again looks like one of the league’s brightest stars. .
But it’s a volatile stock. It always has been. We won’t know if this latest investment in Williamson as an emerging superstar and franchise player was wise until the playoffs — something he’s never had before. Let’s hope he’s up for the challenge, because if he is, the Pelicans have all the makings of a sneaky Western contender.
