Zion Williamson, contrary to his first season in the NBA, is flying under the radar but still making interesting things with the New Orleans Pelicans in this young NBA campaign. The player is having a great season in NOLA and is already drawing comparisons with some big names in the league.
He recently became the second-fastest player to score 1000 points in the NBA, only behind Shaquille O’Neal, who did it in 43 games, one less than Zion. The young player was touted as the next big thing entering the league and although he’s very young, he’s doing impressive things.
That is why Redditor “HomieJeremy” put to work and compared Williamson to three other players that were great at 20, were expected to do big things, and played in a similar position to him. He compared Zion with Shaquille O’Neal, Anthony Davis and Kevin Garnett all at age 20 to see how they stack up against each other.
Zion led in a couple of items, like PPG and FG%, averaging 23.7 points and averaging 59.6% per outing. He ranks second in assists per game with 2.7, only behind KG (3.1 APG). He still has to improve a couple of aspects of his game, especially the defense. Shaq, AD, and Kevin Garnett were known since a young age for being very good on defense and Zion is different in that item.
He is recording 1.0 steal per game, the third-best number among these players. As for the blocks, the difference is huge for him, averaging 0.8 BPG while Shaq had 3.5, AD had 2.8 and Garnet, 1.4.
He has a lot of room to improve his game but so far he’s doing good compared to these three NBA stars. He is part of a struggling team in the New Orleans Pelicans but Zion’s future, just like his team’s, is very promising. If he becomes a two-way player, this man is set to have great things in the association.
Garnett and Shaq retired as legends and Anthony Davis is currently one of the best players in the league. He can aspire to that and knowing his potential, it won’t take long before we see Zion meeting all the expectations that people have about him.
Credit for idea: u/HomieJeremy
