The NBA recently asked the 2019 rookies to vote on their classmates in several categories, including Rookie of the Year favorite, best defender and biggest steal. As part of their polling process, the rookies recognized New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson as the most athletic player in this year's draft.
Which rookie is the most athletic?
1. Zion Williamson, New Orleans — 87%
2. Brandon Clarke, Memphis — 8%
Others receiving votes: Jaxson Hayes, New Orleans; Kevin Porter Jr., Cleveland
Williamson, now 19 years of age, is indeed a dominant force on the basketball court. At 6-7 and 280 pounds, he's simply hard to deal with once he gets rolling. His power is evident, and his first step is deceptively quick. So long as he can maintain a clean bill of health, opposing sides are going to have their hands full for years to come.
The 19-year-old South Carolina native made 33 appearances in his lone season with the Duke Blue Devils, racking up averages of 22.6 points on 68.0 percent shooting from the field (33.8 percent from beyond the arc), 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks in 30.0 minutes per outing.
It's also worth noting that the rookies who took part in this poll voted Williamson as the favorite for the 2019-20 Rookie of the Year award.
Williamson is primed for a breakout season with the Pelicans in head coach Alvin Gentry's uptempo offense. The ultimate goal is a championship, Zion says, but he knows it will take some time to adjust:
“Me being confident in my teammates, I would say I think the ceiling is [a] championship,” Williamson told cbssports.com. “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 is itching to get out on the court and live up to his immense hype.
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