This Is Not The Same Zion Williamson

This Is Not The Same Zion Williamson

To start this season Zion Williamson wasn’t exactly in the best shape of his career he didn’t seem to be moving with the same type of fluidity or explosiveness that we’d gotten used to over the years looked like he lost some stamina and as a result his numbers

Pretty much dropped across the board as the seasons progress though he’s played himself into better and better physical condition and now looks incredible take this play for example it’s a jump ball on the opposite side of the court with just 6 seconds left so when Zion gets

Possession it’s a race against the clock the speed with which he pushes it down court gets into the lane and finishes is just awesome to see or how about that explosiveness here’s another one in transition this time away from the ball and the vertical pop that turned him

Into a sensation looks like it might just be back when Zion’s in shape he’s one of the most impressive athletes not just in NBA history but in all of sports he’s got incredible burst going left to right with a first step so quick that most Defenders aren’t even able to react

In time and he pairs that agility with the build of a defensive end so even if a Defender is able to step in front of him unless they get their entire body there he’s going right through them like they don’t exist and taking it to the

Wreck in addition to the speed and power he’s got a pretty secure handle so on a play like this where help slides down to the nail instead of picking up his dribble early he works his way through that small Gap and finds an angle to the

Rim having a good handle is huge for giving him counters in the event that his initial attack gets defended well he first tries to drive right only to immediately spin back to his left and all he needs is just half a step by his Defender if that on the floor game

Wasn’t tough enough to defend his vertical pop is on another level so if he gets to the paint and a shot blocker stands in his way he still able to finish over or around them you’ll have these plays where it looks like he puts himself in impossible situations with no

Angle at all to finish and then he just creates a layup out of thin air now the natural response to guarding this level of slashing from a player who can’t shoot would be to Sag off and overplay the paint one problem though there’s nobody in the league better at attacking

Space I talked about the Burst when Defenders let him build a head of steam without resistance good luck staying in front of him I also said that all he needs is half a step by giving him room to attack that might as well be a guarantee then you best believe he’ll

Find an angle to finish and when I say angle to finish that could mean anything inside the paint here you see that burst to attack space but with help loading up early he’s forced to take off from a bit further that’s one of the most ridiculous finishes I’ve ever seen it’s

Not just the burst that allows him to eat up space though he’s also incredible at changing directions so when he attacks one way and redirects he’ll make Defenders look like they’re standing in cement basically what I’m getting at is the fact that it’s really difficult to

Stay in front of him and if you somehow do then there’s the strength creating some space with the shoulder before spinning into a jump hook in other words sagging off of Zion essentially gives him a free paint touch and him touching the paint means him getting a shot up

Regardless of how well the defense plays it to make things even tougher they’ll throw some screens into the equation this isn’t your regular ball screen notice how he’s angled almost like an offensive lineman blocking for his running back and we just talked about how good Zion is at attacking space as a

Result opposing bigs often have to come up high so that he can’t turn the corner better protect both sides though because he can also reject the screen and create a lane that way some of these screening actions start off of movement maybe with a handoff and as soon as Brook Lopez

Sits back in that deep drop Zion’s using the paint as his personal Launchpad most of the time it’s an open side pick and roll what I want you to focus on is how low they set the screen if there’s even the smallest gap for him to attack

There’s really not much you can do to recover look at this one when the screen comes LeBron goes under so that he can meet Zion in the paint but with that explosive twoot leap he never had a chance bigs have to close that space right off the screen this time Davis

Jumps out to not let him turn the corner only he still left a sliver of room to split down the middle another thing you’ll see the Pelicans do quite a bit with Zion initiating is set these ghost screens if that second Defender doesn’t jump out he’ll start his drive and

Holiday is pretty sturdy but even he’s no match for that that much force the reason these ghost screens are so tough to guard is because if the second guy does load up that leaves the shooter open for a brief moment and all of a sudden you’re giving up a high quality

Three or in the case of Ingram that could mean a high quality midi and as soon as hachimura slides down from up top to help he made the mistake of giving Zion space from there all it takes is a stampede and he’s got himself another layup plays like that show why

He such a tough cover away from the ball typically you want your rim protector to be helping off of the worst shooter except in the case of Zion that means catching the ball with a lane to attack in a way he’s still able to provide spacing even if he’s not going to shoot

From outside lose him and he’s diving at the basket not even Anthony Davis has an answer for that for the same sort of reasons you don’t want him catching the ball with space to get downhill you definitely don’t want him catching the ball anywhere near the back basket even

If it looks like a defender’s there those quick moves are lethal and as I mentioned before you also have to worry about the explosive twoot leaping if he’s in the dunker spot and rim protectors stand in his way he’ll just go over the top that bounce also helps

Him on the offensive glass there are very few guys who are getting to that ball before him and the scorekeepers might as well add an automatic two points another way you’ll see him get the ball in close is by sealing off low post position especially when he’s

Matched up with a smaller Defender he’s a tough cover with his back to the basket not because he’s got a versatile set of moves but because of sheer physical prowess and I’m not just talking about the low post but from further out as well once again he’ll

Make quick moves right off the catch where that agility is just too much to handle over his last 10 games Zion’s getting to the rim for 14 shot attempts every 75 possessions do you know how absurd that is no other player in the NBA is averaging more than 12 this

Season obviously defenses can’t just let him finish at will around the basket so a lot of times they’re forced to resort to fouling again over those last 10 attempting eight free throws per 75 and converting on a pretty impressive 78.6% of them these marks have led to some really impressive overall scoring

Just under 28 points per 75 on 64.2% true shooting only three other players match or exceed those marks on the year Shay Giannis and jic that’s some pretty good company if you ask me scoring at this rate with it all coming in one area of the floor of course

Demands added attention and Zion seems to grow as a playmaker every single game it could be something as simple as an extra Defender sitting at the nail which leaves a shooter all alone on the opp opposite Wing or maybe when he gets the ball in the post he immediately draws a

Double and kicks it back out to the entry passer but if it were only basic reads he probably wouldn’t be putting up the type of assist numbers that he is just a month ago he had the first game of his career in double digits with 11 dimes against Utah and two weeks after

That he had 10 and a big win against the Clippers in his most recent game he had eight and all of this is while keeping his turnovers relative relatively low let’s go back to the post Utah appears to be in some sort of Zone here and Zion

Makes a great crosscourt finds a herb Jones for a wideopen three or what about those screening actions I talked about remember bigs have to jump out early which results in quite a few possessions of him having two on the ball this time he looks to hit the roller but watches

Harden drop from the weak side corner and makes the right decision to instead hit Dyson Daniels on a stampede to the rim just as a quick reminder here’s what it looks like whenever the defense doesn’t load up so pick your poison as you wish all that’s to say despite a

Slow start to the season Zion looks incredible right now the fluidity explosiveness and conditioning are improving with every passing week the way he’s reading defenses as both an attacker and playmaker allows him and the Pelicans to counter all sorts of looks and the team that started 9 and N

Had has since gone 24 and 13 now just three games back from a homec court spot in the loaded West if you enjoyed this breakdown make sure to drop a like subscribe and turn my post notifications on to be first on more content if you’re interested in my more in-depth research

Make sure to check out my website and social media profiles you can find those links in the description feel free to let me know down in the comments what you think of Zion as always I hope you all have a great day and I’ll catch you guys in the next one

After a slow start to the season, Zion Williamson’s played himself into amazing physical condition, and is now looking unstoppable.

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