Offense
On offense, Zion would likely play one of the big man positions. In college, he played alongside a traditional big man in Marques Bolden or Javin DeLaurier throughout his freshman season, but in the NBA, he will likely be implemented as a small-ball five.
For the Atlanta Hawks, this is a stupendous fit, as John Collins has played most of his minutes at the four throughout his career, and he has not shown enough defensive upside to play the center full-time.
JC lacks the requisite length and heft to truly bang with the meatier centers of the NBA, which is an area in which the hulking beefcake Williamson would thrive. In small-ball alignments, Zion would be far too massive for thinner centers to handle, as he could simply overpower them and clobber dunks into their cranium with regularity.
If a team opts for a bigger player, Zion would likely be too fast for the center to handle in space, so Zion could waltz right to the rim.
Though the UCF Golden Knights might’ve provided a way for teams to exploit Zion with the immense 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall (with an 8-foot wingspan), there are literally no players in the NBA that can quite measure up to Fall – with the closest being Boban Marjanovic (7-foot-3, 7-foot-10 wingspan) or Mohamed Bamba (7-foot, 7-foot-10 wingspan).
Here’s the thing, though, both of those players are either too slow (Boban) or too thin (Bamba) to truly deal with Zion. Couple that with the fact that Collins is lurking on the offensive glass and both Trae Young and Kevin Huerter are spacing out well beyond the three-point line, and Zion’s presence creates a win-win for the Atlanta Hawks offense.