Zion Williamson discloses his honest emotions on his New Orleans Pelicans not making the postseason, this past campaign, for the third consecutive year.
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This past year, with Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram leading a young New Orleans Pelicans team, they had all the potential of making it into the postseason. With other players like Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Steven Adams, Eric Bledsoe among many others, NOLA had one of the best young cores in the league.
However, despite Lonzo’s increase in production, Ingram coming off a career year, Zion’s All-Star level performance, averaging 27 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists, the team managed to win only 31 games. Finishing 11th in the Western Conference, the Pels were only 2 games behind from qualifying into the newly-added play-in tournament.
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Not making the postseason for the 2nd straight year since drafting Williamson came as a shock to many. The 21-year-old too was frustrated after not advancing to the playoffs. Recently, on the SiriusXM NBA Radio “Zanos” revealed:
“It was a sickening feeling. We weren’t in the playoffs — and I’m watching the playoffs — I’m like, man, we can be there. Like I know we can be there this year. Man, something just took over me and I was like, yeah, it’s not happening again. It’s not happening no more.
When I started training, everything, from every rep, everything just felt personal. Everything was like, nah, nothing this year is going to stop us from getting into the playoffs. Like, we’re going to do this. I’m going to make sure I do my part and more, to make sure my teammates see me working.”
Zion Williamson explains how he worked on expanding his offensive skills, even more, this offseason
Being out of the playoffs for two years straight must be a hard pill to swallow for players like Zion and BI. And with a few roster changes, NOLA will hope to finally see the postseason.
Zion, who has been hitting the gym working on his game a lot this past summer, explained how he added a few more offensive skills in his bag, which would no doubt help the team win more games. Williamson said:
“People are going to see a lot of things. They’re going to see me make the game easier for myself. As simple as that sounds, making the game easier on myself, it’s just going to open a lot for my game. The coaches trust me to play point forward. It’s going to open up a lot spacing. I’ve got a lot of shooters this year.
“I guess the best thing I can say is, a lot of floaters, a lot of midrange shots. I worked on that a lot this {summer} because I’m a rhythm player. If I have the ball, like I’ll just create a rhythm, so the midrange shot for me feels really good. So, it’s going to be a lot of that.”
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We already know how Zion was a beast in the paint, bullying grown men. Adding floaters and mid-range jumpers in his bag are only going to make him even more unstoppable. Hopefully, behind a fully healthy and deadly Zion along with Ingram, Devonte’ Graham, Jonas Valanciunas and many more the Pels will hope to clinch a playoffs berth this campaign.
