New Orleans Pelicans basketball is back as the Pels cruised to a 107-97 win over Melbourne United. In this game, we saw 15 different players, including rookies, two-way guys, and star players. And while this wasn\u2019t against an NBA team, I couldn\u2019t have been more impressed with what I saw from Zion Williamson in his 15 minutes of action.<\/p>\n
The conditioning, the scoring, the defense, the playmaking, it was all so good, and this performance now only adds to the hype as Williamson enters his 7th season.<\/p>\n
His stat line read 15 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals on 5-for-8 shooting from the field in his 15 minutes of playing time. Williamson also led the team and game in plus-minus as a +10. While his box score looks incredible for someone who only played limited minutes, his impact in this game was even greater when using the eye test.<\/p>\n
Finally, effort on the defensive end<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start in an area that Z has always had potential to be great at, which is defense. With his build, size, and athleticism, Williamson has the tools to be a good defender, but it feels like he has never really put 100% effort into that side of the ball. However, it appears that may change in this upcoming season.<\/p>\n
Williamson was getting steals on the perimeter that were generating either threes <\/a>for Trey Murphy III or allowing himself to score at the cup in transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n He looked engaged, was sliding his feet and was putting constant pressure on his man anytime he had the ball. If the Pelicans can get this type of effort on that side of the ball from Williamson, they could be a top-10 defense.<\/p>\n His passing was otherworldly\u00a0<\/p>\n With Dejounte Murray being out to start this season, and Jordan Poole thriving more as an off-guard who focuses mostly on scoring, the idea of \u201cPoint Zion\u201d returning has been tossed around among fans. It appears that the idea may be a reality, especially early this season.<\/p>\n Williamson was handling the ball a ton this game, as well as initiating the offense a ton, and it looked really good. He was making the right reads in transition, and he was dumping it off to the bigs in the paint <\/a>and just other simple reads through actions New Orleans was running.<\/p>\n Nothing has changed from a scoring perspective\u2026he\u2019s still A1<\/p>\n We knew what Williamson was going to bring from a scoring perspective, getting downhill scoring through contact for an and-one. Catching lobs in transition and scoring while driving on three defenders, it was just masterful.\u00a0<\/p>\n