Point Zion Williamson is changing the New Orleans Pelicans offense

When the New Orleans Pelicans drafted Zion Williamson with the first overall pick in the 2019 draft, it’s safe to say they were aware of his potential to be a transcendent force in the league. There wasn’t necessarily a timetable put in place. Given his ability to turn former five-star prospects into pulp while at Duke, the basketball world’s assumption was that they’d be put on notice, perhaps immediately. When a 19-year-old the size of your average freeway overpass shows up on your doorstep, you tend to reassess the situation.

But what about when that player – who was most often featured at the power forward position in college and throughout his first pro season – starts playing point guard?

In the last month or so, Williamson has gone from bulldozing post presence (with versatility) to a game-managing Swiss Army knife (with bulldozing post presence). He’s helped turn teammates who were previously inept shooters from deep into confident, consistent gunners. He’s turned the New Orleans Pelicans into a reason to upgrade your League Pass subscription, as if he hadn’t done so already, by balancing their offensive approach. The Pelicans suddenly boast one of the league’s best offenses since late-January. They’re still inconsistent; they’re also getting to be ahead of schedule.

Playing Zion Williamson at the point has reshaped the New Orleans Pelicans offense

Last season, the Pelicans ranked 15th in the league in offense, per NBA Advanced Stats, middling results for a middling team without a cogent offensive identity. Their best players – Brandon Ingram, Williamson, and the since-departed Jrue Holiday – could pace the team handily by scoring 23.8, 22.6, and 19.1 points per game, respectively. Now, the way that points have been divvied up without Holiday running the offense isn’t too drastic – Lonzo Ball and Eric Bledsoe, a fine grouping to replace the now-Buck, combine to average close to 27 points per game this season anyway.

It’s the way the ball is being used when touched, particularly by Zion. Per NBA Advanced Stats, Williamson touched the ball 45.2 times per game last season, 31.4 of which came in the frontcourt; he held the ball for just 1.86 seconds on average, and dribbled just 1.12 times before it left his hands.

Juxtapose that with his numbers this season: 57.2 touches per game, 34.2 coming in the frontcourt (a significant drop in overall percentage). Primarily worth noting, though, is that he now has the ball for 2.83 seconds per touch, and dribbles 2.22 times before getting rid of it. And those are just his season averages. Since the end of January – when he started bringing the ball up the floor more often (more on that in a moment) – 42-percent of his touches have come away from the frontcourt. He’s also had the ball for 3.31 seconds per touch, and dribbled 2.84 times, second on his team to only Kira Lewis Jr., who gets the ball far less often (which is undoubtedly a fine approach).

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These numbers – other than having an eye-glazing effect, understandably – may seem negligible at first blush, as one-point jumps tend to be. But they indicate a significant change in how Zion is using the ball, and therefore how he’s looking to score. His previous numbers, both from last year and prior to February of this season, denote that of a finishing offensive presence. He’s that, too; among players with at least 1.5 putback chances per game, Zion averages the eighth-most points per possession (1.31), ahead of players like Rudy Gobert, Anthony Davis, and Clint Capela. Not to mention, he’s scoring 8.1 points in the paint per game, 11th-most in the league.

But points in the paint and putbacks shouldn’t discount the fact that he’s getting there more often than he’s living there. Yes, he’s a dominant paint presence, but he starts with the ball outside of the paint far more often than what teams had been used to. From the start of the season to Jan. 28, Williamson averaged just under nine drives per game and passed on 22.3 percent of them. Since, he’s bumped up both numbers, driving 13.2 times per game, and passing on 32 percent of them, according to the NBA’s tracking data. It’s hard not to find an open man when four to five defenders are ball-watching, and three of five leave their men to stop a human wrecking ball from infiltrating the paint.

While plenty of those drive-and-kicks can come from isolation mismatches, like in the clip above, more and more lately, they’ve come off of pick and rolls, situations for which he’s beginning to serve as the ballhandler more often. Per The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, a five-game stretch starting on Feb. 14 saw Zion running the pick and roll as the ballhandler 14.4 times per game; while he’s still overwhelmingly efficient as a screener, when he receives a screen, it opens up the offense and helps to space the floor in a way that New Orleans had yet to achieve with this group. Oftentimes in the instances where Zion is the ballhandler, the screener’s defender will neglect said screener by overhelping, leaving the now-swarmed Zion the option to dump the ball into the low post or kick it outside, depending on where his screener elects to go.

Juxtapose that with what he was doing at the start of the season (just 1.4 times per game) and perhaps you’ll find a direct correlation to why the Pelicans have had the league’s second-best offense since Jan. 29. Their offensive rating since then – 121.6, second only during that time to the Brooklyn Nets (122.0) – would obliterate the league record of 115.9 (set by the Dallas Mavericks last season) if it were to persist over the course of the entire season. It won’t, given that it’s unlikely if not impossible, but at the very least, it’s an indication of what the team is capable of on the offensive end.

It’s no happy accident that this jump in production coincides with a change in offensive scheme – and, perhaps more so, evolution from other players. The one man who has been the most exciting to watch improve, Lonzo Ball, has made leaps and bounds in spaces he was once uncomfortable operating in.

Prior to Jan. 30, Ball was shooting just 30.4 percent from the field and 29.9 percent from three in catch and shoot situations. Since then, in part due to the fact that defenses lend him a bit more space as they divert their attention to a dribbling, driving Williamson, the bulk of his catch and shoot opportunities per game have come from three (96 percent, in fact), and he’s made 47.6 percent of them. He doesn’t owe his improved stroke to Williamson exclusively, but you’ll often find that when Zion begins the possession with the ball and looks to drive, heads turn.

In years previous, it would make total sense for all five Bucks to collapse on a driving Zion and ball watch, neglecting unreliable shooters. The most dangerous part of Zion’s evolving game is that his teammates are evolving, too. No longer can Giannis Antetokounmpo ignore a wide-open Lonzo in the corner. He’s hovering around 50 percent on catch and shoot triples; defenders better lend at least 50 percent of their attentions his way, or else that’s a triple every time down.

Let’s not let the improvements cloud the areas where Zion (and his team) continue to fall short. Williamson is still defensively shortsighted, too often caught watching the ball – like defenders when dealing with him – and improperly rotating defensively. It’s a team-wide epidemic, as the Pelicans are giving up the fifth-most points in the league, despite their ability to score the fifth-most as well. Something else caught my eye: they force the sixth-fewest turnovers per game (12.3), which isn’t terrible given the fact that turnovers aren’t often a statistic that offers a wide scope. But when coupled with their defensive woes (they rank second-worst in John Hollinger’s defensive efficiency measurements, allowing 114.2 points per 100 possessions), it goes to show that they’re not overly proficient when it comes to reducing their opponents’ opportunities.

But it’s also not worth letting those afflictions gloss over the fact that New Orleans looks to be reborn as a whole, more efficient on offense, and more diverse in its options. A year ago – heck, a few weeks ago – this team was relying so heavily on the Williamson-Ingram duo that the likes of Ball, Lewis, and Josh Hart were being misused, while Jaxson Hayes, Nicolo Melli, and JJ Redick were hardly being used at all. Fast forward, and Ball’s a shooter, Lewis is a handy spark off the bench, Redick is a pick-and-roll screener, and Jaxson Hayes is a rim-rushing presence with more space to work than he’s had since he entered the league.

With Zion at the point position, or at least having the ball outside the paint more often, the Pelicans aren’t just better spaced: they’re better, flourishing, and soon enough, they’ll be changing how defenses approach the game. Zion was always poised to cause teams to do that. This early on, though, and in this fashion? It’s tough to know if anyone saw that coming.

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