Can Zion Williamson Lift The Pelcians To An NBA TITLE?

Can Zion Williamson Lift The Pelcians To An NBA TITLE?

The western conference is filled with a lot of teams that can be a nightmare to play against with insane Talent all around it’s not easy to stand out and perhaps that’s one reason why the Pelicans have gone relatively unnoticed this season but it’s time to start talking about them and taking them

Seriously as they dismantled the Clippers last night on the road and let the rest of the league know they’re modest we just take a game by game just try to get better each game they’re hungry win games Win games and get ready for the playoffs and they’re for

Real as the only team besides the Celtics with three players scoring 19 or more a game they’re an incredibly well-balanced offensive team they are fourth in passes per game as almost everyone touched it on this possession Ingram starts with get action through Larry Nance Jr draws two Defenders and

Now they’re playing in space making quick decisions not a triple threatened sight as CJ attacks the close of out and gets the shooters roll on the midi and that brings us to Zion Williamson who has the greatest gravity for a non-shooter in the NBA he’s so dangerous

Off the dribble that teams simply can’t handle him one-on-one but he’s also a very good passer with the N ball screen he attracts two Defenders Harden has to rotate to stop the layup and Zion makes the nice read to Dyson Daniels cutting out of the corner for a good finish at

The Rim late in the third the Pelicans flipped his switch to an sensing an Advantage with Mason plumbley guarding him watch how much space they give him daring him to shoot the jumper but a jump stop into a quick spin leaves the defense grasping at air with a

Non-shooter who can handle the ball it’s great to set a ball screen for him near the block this was actually weird that they wanted to screen Russ off of him but like we saw earlier Plum Lee has no answer for the simple jump hook as the

Clippers made a run early in the fourth the py went right back to it with a few more defenders in the area to help so Zion used uses an off foot layup to get it up slightly quicker than normal after Nance got to shove plumbley out of the

Way Nance then changes the angle of the screen to allow Zion to go Baseline the Clippers clearly wanted plumbley to be the rotational help and it worked this time but not really as a deep penetration directly leads to the easy putback made worse by the foul for the

And one they attack Plumley again with the inside ball screen from the right wing with four guards around them there is no second line of defense as Zion utilizes a delay tween cross to get right to the rim for the easy Lefty Layin when the defense does do a better

Job to contain that pick and roll by playing Kawai at Center we get some more good ball movement with CJ attacking on the catch to collapse the defense before Z attacks as well and Zips a nice little pass for an open three ball for McCullum

Playing off of Zion is a CJ specialty as the defense has to bring support for zubot on that left block problem is it should not come from one pass pass away off of one of the deadliest Shooters in the league right now just watching how

Much work CJ puts in on the offens side of the floor it’s easy to imagine how hungry he must get right after the game there’s never any time to eat properly in those types of settings and that’s where Factor comes in they deliver fresh meals from their team of gourmet chefs

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Wellness shots from three available flavors for every order while you’re an active subscriber hey sports fans coach Nick here welcome to B breakdown I am here with CJ M friend of the breakdown to talk a little about shooting so CJ first of all uh how did you know you’re

Going to make all those shots close out the game tonight I just trusted the work um good balance good foundation a lot of reps um understanding of where I’m going to get shots at and just really just understanding who I am as a basketball player catch and shoot uh and

Versus pull-ups do you know that you’re the number one pull-up three-point shooter in the league right now I know that now because you you posted on Twitter today I did uh what’s the difference between pull-ups and uh catching shoot you think fundamental I think it’s a rhythm being able to get

Your feat right balance understanding right left versus left right how dip AR trajectory if you’re fading if if you’re straight um all those things I think play a factor but I’m comfortable with establishing the rhym sure absolutely now I’m thinking that the dip is a big difference between the catch and shoot

And the off the drip people don’t dip a lot when you shoot off the dribble however you do and I teach this I think primarily from watching you do this do you remember how you develop this notion of cuz basically you’re making a dribble shot a catch and a shoot shot yeah it’s

About understanding how to how to generate of course um how to generate uh proper bounce proper pop if you will to to shoot the ball up especially with a Clos out especially going left or right or stepping back your momentum is going away from the basket generally to the

Left to the right or stepping back so you got to be able to generate that extra force that you would normally have uh with hot feet you know going into a jumper to top it off they’ve got another score with the range and height to be a

Go-to crunch time tough shot maker in Brandon Ingram as you can see last night he he can bail them out from the mid-range when the shot clock starts winding down something every team needs deep into the playoffs when the defenses can take away your primary and secondary

Actions on top of that they’ve got the fourth highest three-point percentage in the NBA and even though they don’t take very many it is a great way to keep the floor spaced so their big three can either get room to work with or suck the defense in and kick out for wide openen

Shots I got to speak to Trey Murphy about his shooting and how he made a transition from college to the NBA you you shot really well in college was it any different coming to the pros and shooting in the NBA for you uh really just timing you know guys are a lot

Better athletes but overall shot mechanics and everything else St the same you know continue to do the things I was taught when I was a young kid MH um do you find like the actions are any different in the NBA for you when you’re getting those shots absolutely I mean

There’s a lot of movement I mean when I first came into the NBA a lot of my stuff was catch and shoot because guys didn’t really close out to me as hard but now since they’re on my body right now I got to get a lot more movement

Shots going so you know throw defense off a little bit do you have a favorite action in the offense you like to uh when you want to get those threes up yeah I mean a lot of slip actions with me and Z because of you know most time

My man doesn’t want to switch on to Z so when I go up into the screens a lot of times I’m calling out defensive coverages to try to throw off the you know defending team so then I can get open shots as well another huge key to their success is their defense currently

Ranked eighth in defensive rating this team has a lot of long athletes who have no problem in stealing their minds said on the rest of the team Murphy is one of those guys although he won’t take the credit for the way they get after it no

I mean I think it just starts with herb Jones herb Jones is all NBA Defender First Team all defense and you know his infectious energy on the defensive end definitely uh oozes out to the rest of us I mean I know from me he always encourages me he’s like yo like twoway

Twoway both of us like I always just hearing him in the back of my head saying all right we got guard we got guard it just definitely puts a a lot of pressure on me to guard too and the special weapon they have is the smallest guy in the league Jose Alvarado aside

From wreaking havoc on the entire NBA from just sheer hustle and quickness he’s developed a completely unique way to get steals from unsuspecting ball handlers how did you develop this whole method and and how is it so successful for you I mean it’s just something I’ve

Been doing since I was probably a kid in the park and stuff like that so you know I wanted to do something a little different I know I started doing it when I was doing in uh in or like in professional games and it started working so I just said let’s continue

Doing it well do you feel like there’s a a connection between like hiding behind players that allows you to get this uh those deals I mean you know my thing is everybody call me small right so I’m going to use my height to my advantage and you know when everybody’s so focused

On the game and you know who wants to pay attention to a kid that you barely see in the corner right so um that that’s just a little bit of the mehit I guess right have teams started scouting this I mean yeah um what what do they do

When that you know they just know every time I’m in the game just to be prepared of that and then you know some teams are really good at it and some teams are not good at scouting it so I hear it well I got another clip in there we showed you

Is how you tap the ball from behind and uh that’s a skill that a lot of players don’t have right you get benched if you try and reach from behind um I’m going to tell you this I invented a new defense it’s a Zone where you play

Behind the ball oh wow can you give us some insights into individual skills you can that help you tap that ball from behind like that like did you I mean I don’t think it’s like I think it’s more of just a field of the game you know the

Ball got to come your height eventually you know dribble it so you just got good timing in and if it’s there it’s there you know sometimes it’s not going to work sometimes it is you got just live with it well I’m thinking that you time it when the ball hits the ground you

Begin to steal so that it’s up at the hand when you’re get the hand does that sound famar that sound that sounds pretty good decent right there yeah all right good well guess what when with when the NBA starts running it you’re going to be the guy on the top waiting

For him all right I appreciate so in the end this is the team that no one wants to play in the playoffs they’ve got a monster in the paint a guard who can score from anywhere on the court and a forward who can ISO with the best of them plus perfect complimentary role

Players and a coach with a good game plan that gets these guys playing hard as long as they stay healthy they’ve got a good shot at the second round of the playoffs and if they increase their three-point frequency a bit and get hot they might get even farther

#pelicans #nba #zionwilliamson Use code BBALLBREAKDOWN50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://bit.ly/3BFEtVB !
Coach Nick got exclusive interviews with New Orleans Pelicans players CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III, and Jose Alvarado in order to break down why no one in the West wants to play them in the playoffs.
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