Will Zion Williamson Play A Big Part For Playoff Push?

Being another world-famous league, the NBA's (National Basketball Association) regular season gets infected with the adverse effect of the coronavirus. But soon they got the approval to restart its fans adrenaline’s source from 30 July 2020.

As the halt gets removed, after the long suspension of 4+ months, the teams are ready to face off again to determine the playoff seeding — but in a different format. 

In the 2019-20 season, the Milwaukee Bucks, The Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers, and Boston Celtics already clinched playoff benches before the season's suspension.

The NBA came up with a new format of conducting a limited number of matches, providing the chances to the non-playoff teams to get the final ticket to the berth or 8th seeding. This leaves Washington Wizards, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Phoenix Suns, Kings, and San Antonio Spurs for the rest of the games.

While New Orleans who won eight of its 13 games prior to the season's suspension can have the chance, especially when Zion Williamson is throwing a huge comeback after his injury. Williamson healed from his knee injury, after three months, that he had in preseasons.

Check out if Zion’s comeback can push the Orleans to Playoffs.

Williamson’s Past Performances.

Zion signed with the Pelicans on 1 July 2019 and when he seemed ready for the regular season, he got an injury (tore his meniscus) during the preseason. The incident made him deprive of appearing at the start of the regular season 2019-20.

After 3 months, he made a comeback with a speechless performance. Williamson scored 22 points and 7 rebounds in 18 minutes of his play against San Antonio Spurs on 22 January. The stats include 17 consecutive points that he made in three minutes and eight seconds. However, Pelicans missed the win with the last display of 121-117.

He also became the first teenager in NBA history to score 20+ points in his last 10 consecutive performances.

While playing against Los Angeles Lakers on 1 March, he scored 35 points — overall highest of his career — along with 7 rebounds at a loss of 122-114.

Can Zion’s Weaknesses Stop New Orleans?

Along with the phenomenal career in Duke, and the outstanding performance (out of the teenagers in the entire NBA history) with Pelicans, Zion is definitely a great pick of Orleans.

However, he still has some blind spots that need improvement. No matter how far he is good at ball handling and slams dunks, Zion suffers from outside shooting. He has some traditional style of shot mechanics which he needs to work on.

Zion’s discipline on defense tells the same story, his weak points often turn out as the opponent’s advantages.

However, his relative number of key strengths are still greater than his weaknesses. To know if Pelicans can still be overcome its opponents with Williamson’s role, let’s move much deeper.

What Can Make Zion or New Orlean Win?

Williamson has been addressed as the type of athlete who doesn’t fit into a specific basketball position. Moreover, he has been compared — in the name of physical attributes — with the former NBA stars like Charles Barkley, Anthony Mason, and Larry Johnson.

Zion’s speed and ball-handling, even after having such a heavyweight, is remarkable. His leaping ability and slam dunks make him prominent. Zion has been once described as ‘once-in-a-generation type athlete’ by Kevin Durant, an NBA player.

Other than his skills, and continuous 3 pointers that he showed in the 4th quarter of his NBA debut, his overall performance has a lot to say in his favor. With such an overshadowing identity, Pelicans can book its slot in the 8th seeding with Williamson.

Zion’s has gained a lot of national attention with his outstanding career performance. He has earned 23.6 points in 29.7 minutes of 19 matches with 6.8 rebounds per game. He also sits close to average with his 3 pointers goal percentage.

So, does it concludes that Williamson can push New Orleans to the Playoff? 

If we consider a hard time of New Orleans at the start of the season 2019-20 and what Zion’s comeback did to the team's improvement, then the answer is yes.

Other than Zion, New Orleans has signed with two more young talents; Jaxson Hayes and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Hayes has performed well in the past few games, where he recorded 17 points in one game against Phoenix and 14 points, 12 rebounds within 24 minutes in a different play.