The New Orleans Pelicans are trying to change the way Zion Williamson attacks defenses, and the push has been obvious from the start of camp.
Instead of living almost entirely at the rim, Williamson is being nudged toward jumpers, with the team putting a clear emphasis on getting more shooting out of him. That matters for a Pelicans group that finished last season bottom-seven in both three-point percentage and three-point attempts, and it matters even more because New Orleans didn’t bring in a pure shooter to fix the problem.
So the answer, at least for now, is internal growth.
Williamson has had the shot in his bag for years, and he has flashed it in games from time to time. The issue has been making it part of his game on a regular basis.
The mental side has been the hurdle. He’s been so efficient for so long that learning to live with misses has been part of the process.
Back on media day, Williamson explained the work this way: "This summer was about breaking [his previous trends] and just playing my game. Trusting my game," said Williamson back during media day.
"Trusting my jumper and getting those shots up. Whether I was playing pickup, away from the team, with the team, just getting shots up and trusting it.
If I miss, I miss. The next shot is going in."
The Pelicans are also trying to make the point hard to ignore. Williamson said after the first day of camp, “Gotta make a minimum of 50 [threes] after every practice,” said Williamson with a laugh when speaking to the media after the first day of camp.
That extra work is being reinforced by teammates, especially Trey Murphy. Murphy, the best shooter on the roster, has been helping Williamson as he looks to expand his range.
“With Z trying to expand his game, trying to shoot more, that’s something I do pretty well, so I give him pointers and just help him along the way,” said Murphy when speaking to Kalia Butler after practice.
There’s also been a bit of evidence that the work is sticking. H/T to Chris Dodson for his reporting on it on Thursday, but Williamson actually beat Murphy in a three-point shootaround. For a player like Murphy, who doesn’t miss much in practice, that stands out.
The bigger picture is clear enough: if Williamson becomes a consistent threat from the mid-range or beyond the arc, it changes more than just his own scoring profile. It could open up the floor for everybody else on a team that struggled badly with spacing last season. It also feeds into the uncertainty around how his game fits with 2025 first-round pick Derik Queen.
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