Willie Green's New Orleans Pelicans have been shaped into a defense-first squad through three seasons of adversity. Zion Williamson has not been around or available for all of those games due to injuries and rehabilitation but the intensity of the team's role players is starting to rub off. That's just one big reason why the team is a couple of wins away from securing a top-six seed in the Western Conference's NBA Playoffs race.
It's not a surprise to anyone watching that Williamson is admittedly having fun playing NBA Playoffs tune-up games. There is no doubt Williamson's narrative-changing play is starting to get noticed by even the most clueless national media types. The Duke alum is having his best professional season since being selected first overall in the 2019 NBA Draft.
It took about 60 games but Williamson's All-NBA case is getting stronger by the day. The supporting cast of Naji Marshall, Jose Alvarado, Herb Jones, and Dyson Daniels get a lion's share of the credit for helping the team tread water while Williamson ramped up.
Williamson's defensive intensity for the Pelicans this season is rising to new levels as well thanks to productive days and positivity-reinforcing actions from the team's invaluable role players.
“Just stacking my days. Stacking my days and you know just really trusting the process,” Williamson shared. “I got great teammates, great coaches, that all trust me. So when you have a supporting cast like that it does a lot for your confidence…My defensive intensity. You know watching Naji, Jose, Herb, and Dyson do what they do, I see that it's like “Man I gotta, I gotta up my defensive intensity as well” so that's definitely been a point of focus for me.”
Pelicans, Zion Williamson dialed in on defense
The Pelicans and Zion Williamson have been dialed in on defense down the regular season's stretch run. New Orleans has been on the right side of respected efficiency graphs even without Brandon Ingram being available thanks to a stout defense. The team is sixth overall in Defensive Net Rating this season and Williamson has been good for about one block and one steal per game.
Williamson is also second only to Herb Jones in defensive win shares with the Pelicans this season. He is also third in deflections, just ahead of Alvarado and Larry Nance Jr. Still, those stats and crucial wins do not come without the help of the full supporting cast.
Green talked about how much the defensive-minded role players mattered in the latest road win over De'Aaron Fox's Sacramento Kings.
“Both Dyson and Herb were tremendous on him. They tried to wear him down as best they could. He’s just one of those guys,” Green said. “He figures out a way to put up points but I thought we made it difficult for him. We tried to make him guard on the other end. He’s a heck of a player, but those two guys, 6’7, have size and strength. Both can guard, so we just kept throwing them at him and trying to wear him down for the rest of the game. I thought they did a solid job.”
The Pelicans are 80 games through the regular season but the job of securing an NBA Playoffs spot is still not done. New Orleans needs wins over the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers to wrap up the sixth seed out West. They'll need Williamson to outwork other NBA All-Stars for New Orleans to have any chance of leading the franchise in a first-ever run to the Western Conference Finals.
Thankfully, Williamson has great role models fueling a career year on both ends of the court.
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