New Orleans Pelicans: The organization is mishandling Zion Williamson

Former New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis told the organization in January of 2019 that he wasn’t interested in a contract extension and wanted a trade. Davis wanted to be on a championship-contending team as he felt New Orleans had no realistic path towards a title.

Davis’ preferred destination was the Los Angeles Lakers as they had fellow Klutch client and the best player in the league, LeBron James. The Lakers reportedly offered some combination of Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball, and Ivica Zubac and a future first-round pick or multiple picks.

All of the Pelicans organization except general manager Dell Demps thought it was a great offer. Demps wanted to wait until the offseason as he believed that more teams would be interested in acquiring Davis leading to better offers.

Demps’ thought process led to Davis staying in New Orleans for the rest of the 2018-19 season. Unfortunately, it would also get him as the organization announced that they had fired Demps on February 15th. The team would hire David Griffin two months later as executive vice president of basketball operations to lead the team into the rebuild.

How the New Orleans Pelicans are mishandling Zion Williamson

The first significant event to happen during Griffin’s tenure was winning the draft lottery in May of 2019. Consequently, the organization had the right to draft Zion Williamson of Duke University. According to Johnathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report, Williamson thrived around the basket in college:

"An unprecedented mix of power, explosion and quickness gives Williamson a special advantage, which helped him shoot 73.5 percent at the rim for Duke this past season. He’s a dominant finisher around the basket off transition (92nd percentile), cuts (85th percentile) and putbacks (97th percentile). His speedy first and second jumps plus spectacular bounce and strength should continue translating to easy baskets. But he’s also flashed budding scoring skills with back-to-the-basket moves (99th percentile) and pick-and-roll ball-handling (99th percentile)."

Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that Griffin would prioritize floor spacing to give Williamson the most room possible to successfully operate near the basket. Unfortunately, Griffin went in the opposite direction as he acquired Derrick Favors, Jaxson Hayes, Ball and Ingram during the 2019 offseason. At the time, those players shot below 33 percent from behind the arc.

Therefore, opponents decided to put more players near the basket when Williamson was in the game. Williamson led the league in heavily contested field goal attempts averaging 3.4 per game during the 2019-20 season. He was also 6th in contested field goal attempts averaging 8.7 per game. In total, 80.1 of Williamson’s shots were contested as he averaged 12.1 per game.

Williamson has continued to have the same issues this season as Griffin didn’t change his approach during the 2020 offseason as he acquired Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe. At the time, they shot below 33.7 percent from behind the arc.

Therefore, Williamson is currently leading the league in heavily contested field goals averaging 3.3 per game. He is also 3rd in contested shot attempts averaging 9.8 per game. In total, 84 percent of his field-goal attempts have been contested, averaging 13.1 per game over the first 27 outings.

Despite the lack of spacing, most of Williamson’s production has come inside the restricted area over his first 51 games. He has shot 63.9 percent inside the restricted area on 12.7 attempts per game. The field goal percentage has helped him generate 16.2 points per game, 68.1 percent of his scoring output.

New Orleans Pelicans lineup statistics

The team performs better when multiple above-average shooters surround Williamson. For example, the lineup of J.J. Redick, Kira Lewis, Hart, Williamson, and Hayes has shot 74.3 percent from the field on 11.7 attempts per game in 3 appearances. The shooting percentage helped them outscore opponents by 8 points in 6.1 minutes per game as they have created 23 points per game in 3 appearances.

On the other hand, the starting lineup of Adams, Ball, Bledsoe, Hart, and Williamson has shot 51 percent from the field on 26.7 attempts per game. The shooting percentage helped them outscore opponents by 1.5 points as they are averaging 35.8 points per game in 14.6 minutes.

In conclusion, Griffin should be acquiring more shooters as it would give Williamson extra space to operate around the basket, increasing his effectiveness.