He is unmistakable: a monster athlete, a prototype, someone like no other in the NBA. After struggling with injuries and a lack of consistency for a long time, Zion Williamson is finally healthy this season – and has quietly established his Pelicans as a top team.
New Orleans Pelicans forward Naji Marshall brought the ball forward in the middle of the field as his teammate on the wing gained momentum in transition. Marshall lobbed the pass from the center line toward the basket, into nowhere, it seemed. Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton jumped up to block the ball. Suddenly Zion Williamson came flying out of the blind spot, stood in the air for a full second longer than the man from Indiana, caught the game device with both hands and stuffed it through the net with an alley-oop.
Against the Brooklyn Nets last week, almost exactly the same situation: Marshall stole the ball from Cam Thomas in the halfcourt, sprinted forward and, just before the basket, simply blindly threw the ball back over his own shoulder, high into the darkness of the Barclays Center. Meanwhile, Williamson had also appeared on the scene, took off as if catapulted from a trampoline, arms and legs stretched wide, and produced one of the most spectacular posters of the season. His teammates on the bench were excited, the commentators went crazy, Williamson himself furrowed his brow, as he always does when he can feel “it”.
Meanwhile, New Orleans achieved its next win, 44 already this season, with 27 defeats. The Pels have won nine of their last eleven games. Three weeks before the end of the regular season, they are fighting for home advantage in the first round of the playoffs, just behind the LA Clippers in fourth place in the West. If the win rate (62 percent) holds, it would be the highest since 2008 and the second highest in New Orleans franchise history (Hornets from 2002/2013, since then Pelicans). A finally fit, focused and dominant Zion Williamson is the main contributor to this.
Someone like no one
Most players in the NBA seem to be cast from the same mold: six feet tall, weighing just under 220 pounds, with similar skills: related movement patterns, solid dribbling and jump shots, average athleticism on both ends. Williamson fits into almost none of these molds, except perhaps size. Everything else is as unique as it is unmistakable, whether it’s his body weight (more than 120 kilograms), his explosiveness or his steam-ramming drives to the basket. When they wanted to measure his jumping ability (1.15 meters) in college, they had to replace all the equipment because they didn’t have enough centimeters on the measuring tape.
His ability on the ball, with these physical advantages, sets Williamson apart from his contemporaries. Growing up as a traditional playmaker, he shot up more than 20 centimeters between the 8th and 10th grades to his current 1.98 meters in length. His dribbling and guarding skills were suddenly in the body of a full-grown man, and his athleticism also adapted after a few months of major growing pains. Blessed overnight with almost inhuman power, acceleration and jumping ability, the teenager began to dominate. The college scholarships fluttered into the Williamson household, Zion chose coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski’s infamous Duke University. In his first game for the Dookies, the five-star recruit put up 28 points in 23 minutes.
His highlights made ESPN’s “SportsCenter” glow. Alley-oops, monster blocks and 360-degree windmill dunks were on repeat and made him the most sought-after young player in the country. When his Nike shoe tore during one of his powerful drives during a top game against arch-enemy North Carolina and he was injured, the stock value of the largest sporting goods manufacturer fell by more than a billion US dollars overnight. His productivity and impact made him the undisputed number one pick after one of the best freshman seasons ever in the NCAA; “Jordan” gave him the second most expensive shoe deal for a rookie ($75 million) in history; the Pelicans secured his rights in the 2019 draft.
More monster frustration than monster highlights
When he arrived in the NBA, much less happened than expected. In the preseason, before his first official professional game, he tore his meniscus and missed three months. He later managed to impress with 22.5 points per game and an impressive mix of highlights. However, he was only on the floor in 24 games. And despite becoming the first rookie since Michael Jordan to score at least 20 points 16 times in his first 20 appearances, the Rookie of the Year trophy went to his former childhood colleague, Ja Morant.
The following year he showed for the first time what he was capable of and why he could lead a franchise: 27 points on average, making the All-Star team, following in the footsteps of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal or Wilt Chamberlain. The Pelicans missed the playoffs, but Williamson seemed to be on the right track. Just a few weeks after the end of his sophomore season, he broke his foot in the summer and was out for the entire 2021/22 season.
The fact that the Pelicans still extended his contract and were willing to pay him $193 million for five years confirmed him as a clear fixture for this club. Williamson continued exactly where he had left off before his injury: he dominated again on the board like only “Shaq before him”, made it to the All-Star again – and was injured again in January, badly enough for the rest of the season to miss the playoffs, as did his team. The skeptics became louder and louder: Is Williamson’s body too heavy, too prone to injury, perhaps his game simply not cut out for the NBA? Sure, the numbers and productivity look impressive when he plays. If …
The beast is back – and with him the Pels
This season, too, a lot of things initially looked problematic on “Planet Zion” – and therefore also on the Pelicans. A catastrophic 4:6 start threatened to collapse all ambitions and the entire project in “The Big Easy”. At the latest when New Orleans suffered a 44-point defeat against the Lakers in the play-in tournament, in which Williamson performed well below his potential, he, his excess weight and his weak club were a target for the tabloid press. Since then, things have become quiet around Williamson and his Pels.
Since the turn of the year, they have secretly, quietly established themselves as one of the best teams in the NBA. Only five teams across the league have more wins, only three have a better net rating and a better point difference. Top ten spots in both offense (10th) and defense (6th) have heralded New Orleans as the sort of sleeper contender whose statistical profile certainly suggests there could be a little more going for it in the playoffs than many observers maybe have on your radar.
The team is stacked with versatile role players like CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III and Jonas Valanciunas, who support Williamson and co-star Brandon Ingram. Williamson, who sources say has lost more than 10 kilograms since the turn of the year, has been spared from bad luck in contrast to previous seasons and is on the verge of breaking his personal record (61) for most games played in a season (currently at 60 ). Injuries, regression, public humiliation and wavering confidence in his body have changed his game.
Suddenly he plays differently
The dunks, the blocks and the pure power, it’s all still there, bubbling on the surface, always ready to bubble over. But his approach is different. More thoughtful, more methodical, more intelligent. He seems to have understood that the ups and downs are less desirable than consistency, and that any personal achievements and highlights aren’t worth much if they don’t include team success. His scoring may be down, but his assist rate is higher than ever. “Point Zion” dominates, but differently.
The Pelicans have won 18 of 24 games. Since the beginning of January, only the overpowering Boston Celtics have had a better net rating. Things were going excellently before Ingram – the team’s second-leading scorer – injured his knee and is now out for several weeks. This puts the club to the test, also because only three teams have a more difficult remaining program ahead of them: nine of the last eleven games take place against playoff/play-in teams. And in the playoffs at the latest, Williamson will have to show that he can use the good performances of the past few months, his playmaking and his new agility at the defensive end on the biggest stage. If you believe the superstar himself, he is still a good 10 to 15 percent away from being “the real, old Zion” again. Woe betide the NBA once the monster catches up with its own shadow.