Zion Williamson has high expectations for himself and his team's first season with a rebuilt squad. The No. 1 overall pick could see the New Orleans Pelicans hitting a ceiling as high as the championship in the near future, but knows that won't come without its share of hard work:
“Me being confident in my teammates, I would say I think the ceiling is [a] championship,” Williamson told Macklin Stern of Complex. “But I have to be realistic about this. I have high expectations for us, but you gotta see how we’re gonna work. I think we are going to work, but it does take time to adjust to each player — knowing what they like to do, finding out their tendencies. So I think the quicker we find out those things, I think we have a very high ceiling.”
Williamson wouldn't put a definite timeline on his championship hopes, though he hinted he thinks the Pelicans can follow in the Toronto Raptors' footsteps and be a surprise contender as early as the 2019-20 season:
“What’s realistic is sometimes you never know. From the start of the season, who would have guessed the Raptors would have won it [last year]? I’m going to be honest, I didn’t have them in my top five,” said Williamson. “Yeah, we can win it. I think everybody has that on their minds. View it as just one ball —whoever can put the ball through the hoop more times will get the most points, and that’s who wins. Get the most stops — just gotta see who wins. I try to look at it from that point of view and not from who’s on which team. Any given night, I learned it in college, you can lose a game.”
The Pelicans already have the right pieces to be a surprise in the West, just like the Sacramento Kings were last season, knocking on the door of a playoff spot. The Denver Nuggets themselves, who fell a win shy of a playoff spot in 2018, managed to garner the second seed in the West by maintaining the same core and building on their chemistry.
More than any other season, it's anybody's game in the NBA. While it may take a bit of time for the Pelicans to develop, they surely have the talent and organizational structure to make waves in the near future.
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