Zion Williamson has needed just 19 NBA games to demonstrate he can be a future MVP
Written by News on 29/04/2020
In just 19 NBA games, Zion Williamson has demonstrated a combination of power, speed, size, strength and skill that suggests he may one day become a league MVP, writes Sky Sports NBA analyst Mark Deeks.
This is not a unique observation, and there is no need to pretend for a minute that it is. Yet across his only college season and – more pertinently – the 19 games that he managed in his rookie NBA season before its indefinite hiatus, Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans showed enough in his combination of power, speed, size, strength and skill to strongly suggest that he may very well be an NBA Most Valuable Player award winner one day.
Presumptive? Yes. Premature? Certainly. A legitimately intriguing possibility given how he is such a magnet on the court from the minute he enters the game, no matter the level or the opponent? Absolutely. Zion draws the eye, the defense and the ball.
With the bulk of Zach Randolph and the lift of Zach LaVine, Zion is a true athletic specimen. His ability to both power through opponents yet also jump as quickly as he can – including the all-important second jump ability – makes him a dominant athletic force on the court and the best one to join the league since LeBron James himself.
To go with all that athleticism is an excellent skill profile. With a skillset similar to Julius Randle pairing with a leaping ability like Julius Erving, Zion has a package of physical tools and intriguing skill that needs a little refinement, but which does not need much changing.
As of right now, Williamson is overly left-handed. NBA defenses are by far the most sophisticated in the world, in terms of both team concepts and the headiness of its individuals, and so while no one can or will ever be able to stop Williamson when he has a step on the defense and can attack the rim like a freight train, they can expose his one-sidedness until such time as he remedies it.
This is one of the major refinements he needs to make – right now, he always wants to go left.
Currently, Williamson is deficient as a jump shooter. He is a power forward and everyone playing that position is now expected to be able to shoot for either volume or efficiency from outside – ideally both.
Zion is not the complete article offensively. This was also his main failing at Duke, where, in the 10 offensive play types per Synergy Sports data, his 47th percentile ranking for spot-up possessions was the only one in which he ranked less than 85th.
The rest of those numbers show both the prodigiousness and versatility in his game. To be ranked in the 99th percentile in both post-up possessions and as the pick-and-roll ball-handler, along with the 92nd percentile in transition, is an unheard-of combination.
But the NBA can, and already has, done a better job than college ever has at taking him out of his comfort zones and testing the weaknesses. With more game time will come more scouting information on him, and so the onus is on him to sure up those weaknesses.
Zion’s biggest weaknesses at the moment are all defensive. He does not have the best motor on that end, it seems. While his combination of size and speed could, in theory, make him a Draymond Green-style defender of both the back line and the pick-and-roll, he will never be that without the required effort. He also seems to lack the best anticipatory instincts on the defensive end, and in his short NBA time thus far, the rebounding hustle has been a bit lax at times too, especially defensively.
That’s the to-do list done. Let’s now re-indulge in the great bits.
Even without the outside jump shot, Williamson’s ability to score from down in the post, on the roll, in transition/semi-transition, and when catching the ball from standing, are all so far in advance of his young age that greatness seems inevitable.
In his first 19 career NBA games, Zion averaged 23.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists on a 58.9 field goal percentage, good for a .624 true shooting percentage and a 24.2 PER. He did all this in only 29.7 minutes per game, too. Add some better shooting from both outside the free throw line and at it, up the defensive enthusiasm and throw in some boards, and we are really talking.
As a point of comparison, look at Blake Griffin of the Detroit Pistons. As age and injuries caught up to him, Blake has worked hard to move away from the reckless abandon power-and-athleticism style of play of his youth and become more of a skill-based multi-option threat. He has done so successfully. And yet, jumper aside, Zion already has those skills, and the power and athleticism. Indeed, he has more of both than Griffin ever did.
To be sure, Zion’s own longevity is a concern, as evidenced by the fact that he only played these 19 games due to injury. That combination of bulk and leap might be difficult to sustain – LeBron is the exception, not the rule – and trimming down the weight while retaining his fantastic level of strength and power could be vital to achieving both the highest possible peak of his career, and for as long as possible.
Nevertheless, once he was cleared to play, how long did it take him to burn through the rust and be a good NBA player? About three quarters, tops.
To achieve his ceiling as a player means to shore up the few shortcomings in his game and preserving/maximising his athletic talents. But the floor is already so ludicrously high. Zion’s floor was LeBron James/Anthony Davis high from the minute he first suited up, with an offensive skill set of somewhere between the two.
The Pelicans as a team have already styled themselves around Zion, because of course they have! In being a pass-first player with genuinely incisive passing vision, Lonzo Ball should create good chemistry in finding Zion on the roll and in positions where he can do good things with it; similarly, in being such a good option all the time, Zion is going to make Ball look better, too.
Jaxson Hayes should be a good compliment on the defensive rebounding glass and interior defense, doing the things there that Zion cannot, while the shooting threat of JJ Redick (short term), Jrue Holiday (medium term) and Deividas Sirvydis (long term) should create good spacing for him to operate.
And then, of course, there is Brandon Ingram, the true break-out star of the campaign. The two only had a few games together, yet Ingram’s emergence as the do-everything offensive star it was always hoped he could be is likely to pair well with someone slightly bigger who can offer the same.
In theory, between Zion, Ingram and Holiday, the Pelicans can run line-ups with three players who can score from every area of the court, and in particular giving Zion the spacing and counter-options he needs to shine.
The fun for us will come from seeing quite how good both he and they can be.
(c) Sky Sports 2020: Zion Williamson has needed just 19 NBA games to demonstrate he can be a future MVP
