Zion Williamson scored a season-high 35 points against Portland on Jan. 2.<\/p>\n
METAIRIE, La. (AP) \u2014 Zion Williamson, fed up with never having appeared in a playoff game during his first seven NBA seasons with New Orleans, is forecasting \u201ca different summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
While gratified by how durable and available he was for the Pelicans this season, Williamson was not entirely pleased with his overall performance and bothered by the fact that the Pelicans won just 22 of the 62 games in which he played.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy play on the court \u2013 it was OK,\u201d Williamson, who averaged 21 points per game, said Monday, the day after the Pelicans finished a second-straight, non-playoff season at 26-56. \u201cI was efficient, but I don\u2019t want to sit here and say it was OK and we\u2019re not even in\u201d the Western Conference Play-In Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndividually, I have a lot to go work on,\u201d Williamson continued. \u201cI want to be able to attack from multiple areas on the court. I want to be able to be unpredictable on the offensive end, and I didn\u2019t really do a good job of that this year. \u2026 I want to be able to do more for my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson, a powerful, explosive, 6-foot-6 forward who was drafted first overall out of Duke in 2019, set a personal record by appearing in 35 straight games this season. His total number of games played were the second-most in his career, behind only the 70 he played in the 2023-24 season. That was also the last time the Pelicans appeared in the NBA playoffs \u2013 but did so without Williamson, who injured his left hamstring in the waning minutes a play-in loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n
The only other time the 25-year-old Williamson played more than 30 games in a season was during 2020-21, when he played 61. Overall, he has missed 280 of 556 career regular season games because of knee, hand, foot and soft tissue injuries \u2013 most notably his hamstring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m most proud of is how fast I was able to bounce back from any injuries that I had this year,\u201d said Williamson, who could have played in 65 games, but was rested for New Orleans\u2019 final three, low-stakes contests.<\/p>\n
Pelicans veteran guard Dejounte Murray applauded the steps Williamson has taken to improve his health in the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cZ \u2013 I think he\u2019s getting it,\u201d Murray said. \u201cHe\u2019s got to continue to take care of his body, his mind, and his development is crucial, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson\u2019s availability this season could make him more attractive to other teams, but he asserted that he\u2019d rather not be traded.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Orleans is home for me. I don\u2019t say that because I\u2019m sitting in front of these cameras,\u201d said Williamson, who has two seasons left on a five-year contract worth close to $200 million. \u201cWhen the offseason hits, a lot of guys leave the city. I live here. \u2026 I\u2019ve been here since I was 19.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson also said he \u201c100%\u201d trusts in the vision of Hall-of Famer Joe Dumars, who was hired a year ago as Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has the resume,\u201d Williamson said, referring to Dumars\u2019 championships as both a player and general manager with the Detroit Pistons. \u201cSo, somebody in my position, all I can do is ask questions and whatever information he has to give me, just take heed to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson\u2019s goal next season is to play in 75 to 82 games \u2013 and finally appear in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
His pursuit of the latter goal, he said, will involve probing conversations with Dumars and \u201cother hall of famers,\u201d and \u201cother championship players.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking to take a different approach because it\u2019s frustrating getting up here every year and not being in the playoffs \u2013 and I\u2019ll take my responsibility in that. I definitely hold myself accountable,\u201d Williamson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s time to start taking different approaches, gaining what knowledge I can and working on different things,\u201d Williamson continued. \u201cI have to use the resources that I can to reach out and seek the information \u2013 seek the knowledge that I need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zion Williamson scored a season-high 35 points against Portland on Jan. 2. METAIRIE, La. (AP) \u2014 Zion Williamson,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105,170005],"class_list":["post-391588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports","tag-zion-williamson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}