The Pelicans have placed a lot of weight on Zion Williamson’s shoulders. If the former Duke superstar finally decides to act like a professional NBA player and plays a full season, then the Pelicans should be challenging for a playoff spot. If not, well, it doesn’t look good for New Orleans.
The New Orleans Pelicans bet their future on winning the Zion Williamson-draft sweepstakes when they traded Anthony Davis to the Lakers three years ago. Zion was, arguably, the biggest name to come out of the draft since LeBron James. He was a 6-9 monster that can and would dunk on any rim defense. Every one of Duke’s rivals trembled at the sight of Zion driving full speed at them. Some people even argued that Zion Williamson would become a bigger name than LeBron James in time.
That’s how much hype was around him.
Luckily for New Orleans, their plan worked. They beat all the odds to come out with the 1st overall pick. I still remember how upset and distraught Stephen A. Smith was when his beloved New York Knicks landed the #3 spot in the 2019 draft. Ah, the life of being a Knicks fan. Anyway, thankfully the rest of us, we were not Knicks fans and were excited to see how Zion would perform down in the Bayou.
How three years can change everything.
Mired by injuries, weight issues, and just poor fitness, Zion Williamson has managed to play just 85 games in three years. He didn’t even play ONE MINUTE last season. This is a troubling trend to say the least. What makes this situation even worse is that Zion actually looked very good while he was playing (for the most part).
He’s averaged 25.7 PPG and 7.0 RPG in his short career. That’s not too bad.
Moreover, the Pelicans as a franchise have also gotten a lot better. After three consecutive seasons (2018-21) of missing the playoffs, New Orleans stunned the 8th ranked Los Angeles Clippers to sneak into the postseason as a 9th seed. To which they got bounced immediately by the Phoenix Suns in 6. That is not to say New Orleans was badly outplayed by Phoenix, because they weren’t. In fact, the Suns eventually collapse to the Dallas Mavericks could have been predicated if one watched the New Orleans series closely.
The Pelicans actually had the series tied at 2-2, before they dropped the final two games. They may have come up short, but there can be no doubt that the Suns loss was not on the shoulders of C.J. McCollum and Brandon Ingram. The complimentary pair of stars (for Zion Williamson) played fantastic in that six-game series, with McCollum averaging 22.2 PPG and Ingram averaging an impressive 24.7 PPG against a 64-win team in Phoenix.
Simply put, the acquisition of C.J. McCollum and emergence of Brandon Ingram as a legitimate superstar has helped speed up New Orleans’ rebuild. Without Zion in the lineup at all, McCollum averaged 24.3 PPG and 5.8 APG (in just 26 regular season games with the Pelicans), while Ingram had 22.7 PPG, 5.8 RPG, and 5.5 APG. If the Pelicans wanted to build this franchise around McCollum and Ingram without Zion in the fold, I can’t really make a great argument as to why they shouldn’t.
That is how inconsistent Zion Williamson’s health and fitness has become.
Anyway, the future of this Pelicans rebuild (in its current iteration) once again falls onto on Zion Williamson’s shoulders. If he can stay healthy and in basketball shape, then the Pelicans should be a Top-4 seed. If he can’t, New Orleans will struggle to gain the home-court advantage in the Play-In Round. And he may find himself out of New Orleans before long if that scenario does come to pass.
Seeing as Zion hadn’t been able to stay healthy for three years now, I fear this may be the rest of his career plays out. If that is the case, then what a waste of such talent. And money, given his new 5-year, $193M extension. (Season Prediction: 5th place; Second Round Exit)
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