Atlanta Hawks: RJ Barrett or Zion Williamson?
The Case for Zion Williamson
Simply put, we have never seen anyone like him.
His unique laboratory concoction of strength, speed, and size seems better suited for the turf than the hardwood, and yet here he is. All 6’7″ and 285 pounds of him.
Labels like “once-in-a-generation” and “surefire No. 1” have been tossed around, with good reason. I mean, just look.
Zion Williamson, first Duke freshman with 30/10/5!
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) January 9, 2019
30 PTS (career high)
13-16 FG
3-4 3PT
10 REB
5 AST
4 STL
(Via @theACCDN)
pic.twitter.com/mMhAzPRikJ
We’ve all seen the insane dunks. But now he’s going 3-for-4 from behind the arc? Are you kidding me?
And that stat line isn’t against Yale. Geez, Wake Forest is an ACC opponent. A Wake player recently told me that the only weakness his team could discern while scouting him was the three-point stroke, so they game-planned to make that an emphasis.
Oh well.
The possibility of a long-distance shooting Zion has the NBA salivating for good reason. From every metric, it looks like he is going to be a superstar for a long time.
When you’re smashing Anthony Davis‘ college marks, you’re doing something right.
Zion Williamson: 30.6 PTS, 14.3 REB, 3.2 AST, 3.2 STL, 2.9 BLK and .384 Win Shares per 75 team possessions, .690 TS%, 20.8 Box Plus-Minus (on pace to comfortably beat Anthony Davis' BPM record) pic.twitter.com/bINHiKiUFM
— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) January 7, 2019
Contrary to what ESPN sometimes seems to be turning him into, Zion is much more than a high-flying circus act. He has phenomenal basketball IQ, tremendous defensive instincts, and a propensity for being a force of nature wherever he is on the court.
Sound familiar?
That’s right, for as many headaches that have been caused when the LeBron comparisons start flying around the room for guys that haven’t reached their 20th birthday, there seems to be something different about Zion from O.J. Mayo, Andrew Wiggins, and Ben Simmons, no?
As has been previously stated, we’ve literally never seen anything like him.
With a city starved for a big-name star, Zion would deliver not only the entertainment value, but a solid building block (no pun intended) for sustained championship basketball.
The dunks provide a surface-level joy that masks how dang good this man is at basketball. As of Jan. 8, Zion was shooting an incredible 74% on two-point attempts. Defensively, his block rate (7.1) and steal rate (4.2) provide numerical context to what we see with our own eyes.
https://twitter.com/Ballislife/status/1065378925935820801
Athleticism translates, folks.
At worst? Somewhere between Aaron Gordon and Blake Griffin.
The ceiling? Well, that’s the roof my friend.