All my homies hate the Suns Zion if you’re listening, GIVE EM HELL
The New Orleans Pelicans have played great basketball throughout this 2023-24 campaign. The team coached by Willie Green has been winning games consistantly and despite that, they have been flying under the radar. Zion Williamson seems to have benefited from having less flashes following him, being much more productive, staying healthy, always competing.
With the NBA approaching to the final stretch of games in this remarkable regular season, the debate around the end-season awards is now getting more attention. In Zion Williamson's case, this has been without a doubt his best performance so far.
The first pick of the 2019 NBA Draft has solidified everything it was expected back then in this season. The last 15 games played with the Pelicans Zion's All-NBA applicaction is looking pretty sharp. The talented powerd forward has helped his team to fight for a direct playoff spot in a Western Conference team that's been a competitive nightmare, with teams like LeBron's Lakers or Curry's Warriors struggling to get out of the play-in positions for a while now.
Williamson's performance has been on a steady rise since New Years Day, Zion has been playing more minutes and looking happy, enjoying and having fun with his teammates. The outcome: performing in the 90th percentile or better in several metrics. Nobody is making fun of his weight anymore, in any, Williamson looks stronger and athletic as ever, and the evidence of that comes with just watching his gravity defying dunks.
New Orleans had to wait nearly a decade to be on the place that it is right now, and part of that accomplishment is obviously thanks to the 25-year-old power forward. The two-time All-Star is ninth best in scoring, 13th in FG% among those with more than 10 attempts, and second in free throw attempts per 100 possessions.
After Brandon Ingram's injury, Williamson has been carrying nearly all the offensive weight of the team, as he's now the main focus for the Pels rivals on defense. Despite this must been taking its toll on Zion's body, it's also a statement of how great his conditioning is and has been throughout the exhausting NBA schedule. Coach Green praised this aspect of his improvement. Staying fit, staying healthy allowed him to play an increasing amount of minutes and a career-high with 63 games played so far.
Since January 31st, Zion averages 20+ points, 5+ assists and 5+ rebounds. Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Anthony Edwards are some of the names that join Williamson with that kind of numbers. All of them are in the mix as All-NBA team candidates.
This year's ballots have no positional designation, making it harder for specialists to make the list. The 65 games played threshold ruled out Joel Embiid, Donovan Mitchell, Trae Young, and Kyrie Irving will not qualify.
Williamson's All-NBA case may be won influenced by this rule changes in some ways but the honor will be appreciated all the same.
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