Zion Williamson has attracted the attention of the world with his explosive physical fitness since he was a child. After Duke spent a year in college, he announced his entry into the NBA draft. He was unanimously selected by the Pelicans with the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. The highly anticipated, he was injured in his rookie season and only played 24 games. Although he averaged 22.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, he was very good, but he lost to the healthy Ja Morant in the rookie vote.
2020-21 became the first full season for Zion. The pre-season Pelicans ushered in Bledsoe and Adams. In the case of poor lineup shooting ability, how to solve the problem of congestion in the penalty area has become a test for the new coach Stan Van Gundy. In fact, although Zion often had performances with a score of 20+ at the beginning of the season, the overcrowded penalty area made Zion, who frequently challenged the basket, got a high number of pot covers. The total number of pot covers in the 10 games before the season was 27 times, which is the league’s most in 20 years. The Pelicans’ offensive efficiency of 106.8 is only 22nd in the league.
In order to solve this problem, the Pelicans changed Zion’s offensive position. Originally, his main offensive mode was to act as a pick-and-roll follower or low-post singles. However, the overly obvious intention caused the opponents to often have time to come to the penalty area to help defend. Inefficiency. The current Pelicans have begun to use Zion as the offensive initiator. He can often see him dribbling the ball after half-court and then holding the ball for pick-and-rolls, attacking dislocations, and forcing opponents to help defend through strong cuts, and then find a gap through guidance. Let the Pelicans’ offense liven up, and the offensive efficiency increased to 112.7, the eighth in the league.
Pick and roll with the ball:
Attack dislocation:
Pair with Redick to create a peripheral gap for the latter:
Cut into the ball:
Zion, who was already threatening in pick-and-roll follow-ups, air cuts, and switch offenses, has now added the ball-holding offense to the arsenal, making opponents undefeable. This season’s Zion has become the league’s most difficult beast in the penalty area, scoring an average of 16.6 points in the penalty area with 64.1% shooting per game, ranking first in the league. An average of 24.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1 interception, and a true shooting percentage of 64% are better than last year. At the same time, the average assists in the past 14 games have reached 3.9 times, and the turnovers have dropped to 2.0 (2.4 in his career), which proves Zion After gaining a new position, he performed even better, and is moving towards the goal of being an all-around forward with both cut passes.
