Harrison Barnes is a free agent and may be priced out of what the Kings want to spend. This leaves many wondering, what really is Williamsons ceiling, with such a limited, albeit impactful, skill set? Rockets guard struggling to hit jumpers as we dig into 5 noteworthy stats, Plus, a look at zone defense and Al Horford's play without Joel Embiid, Clippers star in midst of worst shooting season as we dig into 5 noteworthy stats. It's scary to think that Williamson is doing this while having played less than a season's worth of games in his career. Williamson finished 14th in true shooting percentage and fourth in PER last season, largely because he refused to settle for shots he wasnt comfortable taking. So the Pelicans will sometimes try to set those screens as low as possible, like at the dotted circle , A low screen can make it tougher for the defender to get under and give Williamson a runway , Switching the ball screen can keep Williamson from being able to get downhill, but it can also put him in a matchup he prefers , Williamson has also shown an ability to read his own defender. He still has a lot of developingto do imagine him with even a semi-reliable jump shot and yethe's already one of the league's most dominant scorers, a 20-year-old who is doing things we haven't seen since Shaquille O'Neal. WebZion Williamson has shot 60.8% (285/469) overall and 36.8% (7/19) from three in 29 games this season. By the way, there was a Bol Bol sighting in this game, with him going coast-to-coast for the slam. They couldve used his shooting on a day they went 7 for 34 behind the arc, missing a chance to break open the game early and then hindering any chances of coming back. Williamson plays with so much force and controls it so well that it makes backing off of him tricky. To answer key questions, uncover hidden truths and peel back the curtain on why some numbers matter more than others. But the ways in which the Pelicans have achieved that goal have changed. This alone demonstrates that Zion is already more than the limited player hes often painted to be. And the Pelicans are nowhere close to great. He is a New Orleans native. Nothing worked consistently. all are 27 or younger. a constant gripe of head coach Willie Green, https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2023/03/17040208/CJ-drop-off.mp4, https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2023/03/17040230/CJ-corner.mp4, when McCollum shares the court with Daniels, are outscored by 2.7 points per 100 possessions, have a staggering plus-19.5 net rating this year, has been the main cause of his rocky season, https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2023/03/17040300/BI-TO-2.mp4, https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2023/03/17040325/BI-TO.mp4. With a full season officially under New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamsons belt, we got to see the dominance that made him a viral sensation in high school, executed at the NBA level. Instead, those opportunities have been few and far between, and the results havent been nearly as successful when they occur. With better luck in close games, the Mavs might be in second place in the West instead of sixth. New Orleans Pelicans news fromFanSided Daily, 5 bold predictions for Cowboys against Patriots, Bills zoom into AFCs drivers seat, Chiefs reach crisis and more. Playing with a poorly built roster, under his second coach (who has since been fired), at just 20 years old, Williamson put up historic numbers averaging 27.0 points on 61 percent shooting. He's slightly undersized to play power forward or centre at 6-foot-6, but he has the size to power his way through bigger defenders when he gets intothe paint. The Pelicans rank fifth in both pace (103.3 possessions per 48 minutes) and fast break points per game (16.4). It gives CJ more of a balance being on the floor where he doesnt have to have the ball in his hands and initiate every time, Green said. He is in the MVP conversation early this season (although his defense could hold him back in that race). Brunson was 0 for 7 from outside and committed five turnovers. The Warriors have been in these moments for a decade and had the poise to handle it. After getting traded to New Orleans, McCollumembraced the opportunity to show he could be more than just the single-minded scorer he was in Portland. We need to appreciate Zion Williamsons commitment to efficiency. Officially, according to Tom Thibodeau, Knicks forward Julius Rankle will be a game-time decision with his sprained ankle. (Shot Chart) Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 30, 2023. Williamson dominated the paint in the little we saw of him last season, but the way he's doing it this season is different. The Miami Heat needed all season to turn into the team they expected, so no way Butler wants to miss a minute of it now. 1 pick doesnt have to be an above-average 3-point shooter to be a problem for opposing defenses, especially when hes playing the five and surrounded by four other guys that can shoot. Will the East finally overtake the West in the 2021-22 NBA season? Davis 34.2% from mid-range ranks 43rd among 47 players with at least 100 mid-range attempts. Andrew Wiggins is going to get the LeBron assignment and generally has done well defending him, but the Warriors need Wiggins to have a series like he did in the Finals last year. The Knights held opponents to 36.5 percent shooting from the field in 2016-17, which hasnt really been tested outside the paint? In his second season, Zion Williamson has not extended his range. Pelicans executive David Griffin said Friday that Williamson (hamstring) was never cleared for 5-on-5 or even full-court 3-on-3 work before the This is where Alvarados absence (hes missed the last seven games with a stress reaction in his right tibia) hurts more than some suspect. Your default site has been set for 7 days, Stat Just Happened: Zion Williamson is dominating the paint in a way we haven't seen since Shaquille O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal-type force of nature with a point guard skill set. In 68 career games, Williamson has made 19 shots (on 56 attempts) from outside the paint. Bam Adebayo had 16. Whenever you're rubbing shoulders with a first-ballot Hall of Famer, you know you're doing something right. If defenses ever challenge him, we will see all Zion has to offer. Interestingly, all those preseason minutes were played with Brandon Ingram, Nicolo Melli or Kenrich Williams playing the four alongside Williamson. Teams can't simply sell out on his drives and giving him space when he has the ball in his hands makes themvulnerable to handoffs. The Pelicans have teased with wins over good teams before and still have a lot of work to do to secure a Play-In spot in the West. The Pelicans have won four of the five to climb within a game in the loss column of the ninth-place Warriors, with all three head-to-head matchups still to come. Zion Williamson | Duke | PF | 6-7 but his offense outside the paint is where he can most improve as a prospect. With Williamson rarely looking to score outside of the paint he's taken a grand total of eight shots from midrange and 24shots from 3-point range this season you'd think giving him space would be the easiest way to contain him. New Orleans, by contrast, has reached 15 3-pointers in a game only once since the start of the new year. He has a good enough handle to blow by defenders who press up on him. Zion is as strong and explosive as anyone who has ever played the game, and when Gobert would play back daring Zion to shoot from the outside, he would use that on a runway, get rolling downhill, get his body into Gobert and get a bucket. 17, and Marcia Chapman, 31, whose Allen described the shot, back around 1998, that changed how he perceived golf. Last year, his court vision made a noticeable jump as he learned to carry a much larger load without Williamson. The Kings are still learning. 1 when they toppled Milwaukee in the first round. * The 54% is if you call the 6-8 Julius Randle the center in last seasons Davis-Randle frontline. More than just spacing, on Tuesday New Orleans settling for Brandon Ingram or Zion or other players going at the Jazz in isolation rather than having player movement. In fact, if you counted only games that werent within five points in the last five minutes, the Mavs would have the best record in the West. The Pelicans are going to ask a lot of Williamson and he's not going to have the workload of your average 19-year-old NBA rookie. The number drops to a minus-1.2 net rating when McCollum shares the court with Daniels, a wing-sized rookie with enough playmaking skill to serve as a point guard in a pinch. The Heat fell behind by 12 points in the second quarter, but that wasnt going to faze a team that eliminated deficits of 15 and then 16 points in the last two games against Milwaukee. The whole point of having a player like Valaninas is to make the game steadier when things slow down and take advantage of having a capable post scorer to maneuver one-on-one. He played 49% at the four the season before (alongside DeMarcus Cousins and Emeka Okafor). It's scary to think that Williamson is doing this while having played less than a season's worth of games in his career. Until defenses figure out how to take the basics away from him, asking him to dig in his bag and get complicated just for the sake of complexity is missing the point. But his work in the paint, along with the seventh highest free throw rate (52 attempts per 100 shots from the field) among those 251 players, has Williamson ranking eighth in scoring at 26.4 points per game. Try a week on us. one of Embiid's two blocks came tonight against a barreling Zion Williamson | @wendys pic.twitter.com/qHhOzWs7it, NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) April 10, 2021. Hes had his shot blocked 94 times, 31 more than any other player in the league. Theres no question the front office will be proactive in finding a solution in the offseason. Green has shot 44% from beyond the arc with Davis at the four and just 25% with Davis at the five. New York led 61-53 early in the third before Kevin Love converted a three-point play to trigger a 21-5 spurt by Miami. And all of Williamsons minutes at the five were at the start of the second and fourth quarters, when Ingram was on the bench. Happy Friday! This season, 71.3% of Zions shots come at the rim and 96.6% are within 10 feet of the basket. I think it helps CJ more than anything.. Pelicans executive David Griffin said Friday that Williamson (hamstring) was never cleared for 5-on-5 or even full-court 3-on-3 work before the Pelicans' Play-In Matchup against the Thunder, Andrew Lopez of ESPN.com reports. That latter number comes with a small sample size (48 attempts) and will probably improve with time. Shooting just 41.9 percent from the field entering the game against New Orleans, Mitchell has began to turn the corner when it comes to his scoring efficiency early in the 2021 season. Davis has an effective field goal percentage of 39.4% on shots from outside the paint, a mark that ranks 117th among 122 players who have taken at least 200 shots from the outside (not including backcourt shots). That figure jumps to 106.6 in half-court sets when the four other starters play with someone other than Valaninas. With Jimmy Butler hobbled late by an ankle injury, Miami gets big performances from Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love to take the series opener in New York. In a season full of comically awful numbers, this one has jumped out the most: The Pelicans normal starting lineup without Zion (McCollum, Jones, Ingram, Murphy and Valaninas) is getting outscored by a whopping 26.3 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass. Part of what works for Zion is Stan Van Gundy putting him in positions to succeed. He will take what is given to him; often that has been the basket. Its great playing with a guy like that, Williamson told reporters on Friday, referencing Ball. December feels like a lifetime ago for the New Orleans Pelicans. While the Mavs have scored 116.4 points per 100 possessions (No. Zion Williamson is averaging 26.5 points on 61.7% shooting this season. The fine results from Brooks failure to participate in team postgame media availability during the first round. Losing perhaps the most dominant paint scorer in the game certainly changes the dynamic drastically. The Pelicans were more efficient from the 3-point line when Williamson was healthy early in the season. Looney had 21 rebounds total, while Sabonis had no rebounds in the third quarter when the Warriors started to pull away. Listed at 284 pounds, there are only three players Tacko Fall, Boban Marjanovic and Jusuf Nurkicwho currently weigh more than Williamson. His handles, court vision, and facilitating come naturally to the 6-foot-7, 284-pound force who grew up playing point guard. The last five games have been the highest-scoring stretch (32.4 ppg) of Williamsons career. pic.twitter.com/SLa2UhinrP, Orange is the New Openly Black (@NekiasNBA) January 20, 2021. Remember, he missed the entire 2021-2022 season. first episode of NBCs new Beyond the Fairway podcast. Van Gundy is also limited in the things he can do with Zion because of his games limitations right now. NBA.com is part of Warner Media, LLCs Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network, *Translations are limited to select pages, Friday's notebook: Russell Westbrook's outside shooting woes, Friday's notebook: Heat picking up quality wins, 10 Numbers to Know from the 2019-20 season thus far, Friday's notebook: Kawhi Leonard struggling to finish at basket, Series preview: What to expect in Warriors-Lakers, 5 takeaways from Warriors' Game 7 victory, 5 takeaways from Heat's Game 1 win over Knicks, Curry sets Game 7 record with 50 points vs. Kings, Brooks fined $25K for violating interview rules, all of his minutes at the five on Wednesday, alongside DeMarcus Cousins and Emeka Okafor, fifth in the league with 13.2 points in the paint per game, the best mark among 36 players with at least 200 restricted-area attempts, ranks 43rd among 47 players with at least 100 mid-range attempts, games that were within five points in the last five minutes, No team has played more clutch games than the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's something the Pelicans do often because it makes it harder for his defender to duck underneath the screen. Williamsons 4-for-4 from 3-point range in his debut was obviously a little fluky. Build your customFanSided Daily email newsletter with news and analysis onNew Orleans Pelicans and all your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and more. He has a good enough handle to blow by defenders who press up on him. Stephen Curry dropped 50 in Game 7 Sunday the most points ever scored in a Game 7 lifting the Warriors into the second round with another epic performance. The Knicks won the last three of those but have work to do if theyre going to take this one. Domantas Sabonis led the Kings with 22 points, but he was outplayed by Kevon Looney in Game 7, particularly in the second half Looney had more offensive rebounds (10) than Sabonis had total rebounds (eight). The Pelicans rank third among teams at 6.2 per game, and the more their guards put defenses on their heels, the more opportunities Williamson will have to do damage on the move. While the Pelicans lack of spacing and dearth of supplementary scoring options have played a large part in the offenses stagnation, the ball getting stuck with McCollum (and Ingram) has also hurt. The Kings have hard choices to make. They gradually narrowed the deficit before halftime, blew by the Knicks with a 21-5 run in the third quarter and pulled away to a double-digit lead in the fourth. And until he shows he can make shots outside the paint, teams will play far off him to take away the drive. Many of his per-minute statistics look the same as last season. Here are the 3-point numbers for everyone not named McCollum or Murphy since Jan. 1: Lately, its been tough to believe anyone on this list will knock down a spot-up shot when the ball finds them on the perimeter. Check out the podcast, where Allen also discusses social justice, his mindset as a player, and much more. Golden State's star sharpshooter enjoys another historic moment, which also set his playoff career high. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs. Kevin Huerter shot 2-of-9. NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) April 30, 2023. And he's getting better at reading defences. According to NBA.com , that's how many points per game Zion Williamson is averaging in the paint this season. But all of his minutes at the five on Wednesday were played alongside four guards. Zion Williamson played his first regular season debut on Thursday, registering 22 points, seven rebounds, three assists and five turnovers in a little over 18 minutes in the Pelicans 121-117 loss to the Spurs. Even if a team thinks theyhave one player who has a decent shot at hanging with him, they almost certainly don't have two, making switching against the Pelicans adangerous game. Hes missed the last 32 games and is a week away from being re-evaluated for a possible return this season. But since Jan. 1, Ingram is averaging 3.6 turnovers per game, a significant jump from the 2.7 he averaged last season. Hes more methodical with the ball in pick-and-roll situations, which allows him to operate in the midrange area, where hes most comfortable. He took 18 threes. Williamson plays with so much force and controls it so well that it makes backing off of him tricky. Dropping a 7-foot-4 centre with a 7-foot-10 wingspan to the paint should work but Marjanovic probably wasn't expecting Williamson to take off around the dotted line and jump so high that he could softly lay the ball in. As he has done since college, Curry digs deep when everything is on the line and proves his doubters wrong this time with 50 points including seven 3-pointers, plus eight rebounds and six assists thrown in. That starts with shooting Zion made a jump hook in the third quarter of this game that was his first made basket outside the paint this season, reports Andrew All picks and predictions are suggestions only. Its a blow for the Knicks and creates an opportunity and pressure on the Heat to steal a game in Madison Square Garden when New York is not at first strength. Ja Morant is probably going to be a top-three pick in the 2019 NBA Draft because of his star potential. The starting lineups struggles this season has illuminated a larger issue thats popped up while Williamson has been out: The experiment of making McCollum a point guard in New Orleans hasnt worked as well as he hoped when he joined the team last season. Their average margin of defeat in their 16 losses is 6.3. Since then, the Pelicans are 26th in offensive rating, 14th in points in the paint and have been held under 100 points more times (six) than theyve reached 120 (five). Williamson took DeRozan into the paint and Ball lofted a lob pass over the helpless defender. COAST 2 COAST @BolBol pic.twitter.com/Nt7w0QqsnQ, Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) January 20, 2021. After shooting 6-for-11 on shots to tie or take the lead in the last minute of the fourth or OT last season, Luka Doncic is 0-for-6 this season. Jokic is averaging a triple-double this season: 25.1 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 10 assists a game, with a ridiculously efficient 65.8 true shooting percentage. However, thats not necessarily McCollums game. This might have been the greatest Stephen Curry game of them all. His overall shooting numbers are pretty much the same, and hes been fairly reliable as the No. @StephenCurry30 went off the man dropped 50 https://t.co/jnbpt4Vpb3 pic.twitter.com/LTd3V0X1Wf, Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) April 30, 2023, Andy Murray (@andy_murray) April 30, 2023. Were just playing great basketball, Butler said in a postgame interview on the court with ABC, while still showing a limp after a fourth-quarter ankle sprain. His 20.3 points in the paint per game were the most in a season since Shaquille ONeals 1999-00 MVP season. Zion Williamson has averaged 32.4 points over his last five games. Since Williamson injured his hamstring, Valaninas hasnt provided that reliable third option needed to take pressure off McCollum and Ingram. How does that work? NEW YORK (AP) Jimmy Butler looked his coach in the eye and said he was staying in the game, no matter how much his ankle might have hurt. With their loss to the Clippers on Tuesday (in which they led by one with less than three minutes to go), the Mavs are 10-13 in games that were within five points in the last five minutes. Last season, Butler (103 steals, 81 personal fouls) and Jones (59, 44) were the only two players that did it. The problem is those shots have not been falling for him as much this year. The Lakers defense has been great in those minutes with him at the five, but the offense has been sub-par (104.8 points scored per 100 possessions), in part because Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green, James and Troy Daniels have all shot worse from 3-point range in those minutes (30% combined) than they have otherwise. 8 seed to beat a No. I also think his approach to these games is hes gonna go down swinging. (To boot, many of his "unassisted baskets" were putbacks). UPDATE: The Knicks have made it official, Julius Randle is out for Game 1 vs. Miami. First, it's the highest mark in the league. Time will tell if Davis continues to play almost twice as much at the four as he does at the five, though the percentage of his shots that have come in the paint hasnt been much higher when hes played center (59%) than it has when hes played next to McGee or Howard (57%). The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting. Four of those 19 came in his rookie debut. It seems that Larry Nance Jr. or Jaxson Hayes, while less talented, do a better job of giving this seasons team what it needs on both ends. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its clubs. Utah has won six straight, is healthy, and playing well right now. Back-to-back bad closeouts from Zion leads to five quick points for Utah. When McCollum, Ingram and Williamson play together, the Pels have a staggering plus-19.5 net rating this year. Perhaps the wear and tear from everything Valaninas did last year and the first half of this season is catching up with him. Were trying to get him to up that to four or five. 8-seeded Heat kept rolling after barely reaching the postseason, beating the New York Knicks 108-101 on Sunday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Williamson's body control is incredible. RJ Barrett scored 26 points and Jalen Brunson had 25 for the fifth-seeded Knicks, who are in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Williams is injured and Melli played just over a minute, late in the first quarter. Like Antetokounmpo, Williamson has been criticized for not attempting shots outside of the paint at any meaningful volume. And over the last 23 games, its over 11% (and almost even with that of Brandon Ingram). 1 overall pick Zion Williamson. Nekias Duncan of Basketball News put it best: Williamson plays with the speed and dexterity of a Russell Westbrook and the power of a Giannis Antetokounmpo. Teams can't simply sell out on his drives and giving him space when he has the ball in his hands makes themvulnerable to handoffs. Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Breaking down stats and film from around the NBA, including a look at Zion's improved ball-handling skills. On the other hand, its hard for Green to ignore his teams minus-26.3 net rating when the starters are on the floor compared to the plus-9.1 net rating it posts when Valaninas is removed. Maybe Valaninas production would improve if Green trusted him more and made him a bigger part of the offense. Its the playoffs, number one. At 33-36, they sit in 12th place in the West, a half game out of the final Play-In position. But are they even better than that? It wasnt just from the play-in.. Draymond Green is going to have to be special (and will get time on LeBron and AD). Zion is efficient at his shots, going 14-of-19 against Utah. De'Aaron Fox was 5-of-19. All advice, including picks and predictions, is based on individual commentators opinions and not that of Minute Media or its related brands. Ive got to be better.. This aggressive Curry had some help, but as it has always been with the Warriors, it starts with him. There was no better example than Tuesdays ugly loss to the Lakers, which included Los Angeles splashing a franchise-record 15 3-pointers in the first half on a lifeless Pels squad. Defensively he has struggled as an on-ball defender despite his tools, and on offense is settling for more isolation and is averaging 13.9 points per game (down from 15.3 a season ago) and his true shooting percentage has Gabe Vincent scored 20 points for the Heat, who became the sixth No. Even if his game is simple strength, power, quickness it works to a historic degree.
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