Zion Williamson’s 3-point shot has been a tease for most of his NBA career, but the Pelicans are heading into this season with real reason to think that might finally change.
That memory goes all the way back to Jan. 22, 2020, when Williamson made his long-awaited debut and erupted for four 3-pointers in a 2:34 burst during the fourth quarter. The Smoothie King Center was buzzing, and it looked like the league was getting a preview of a much different version of Zion.
But that didn’t hold. Williamson hit only two more threes that season, then added just 27 over the next six years.
In all, he has made 33 career 3-pointers. The volume has been just as striking as the makes: he has taken only 102 in his career, and that number has dropped in each of the last four seasons.
He shot 19 four years ago, 18 in the Pelicans’ 49-win 2023-24 season, 13 the following year and a career-low four last season, when he made one.
Last season, Williamson explained his reluctance this way:
"I just hate when I miss,” he said. “I don't want to feel like I wasted a team possession."
This preseason, though, the signs point in a different direction. Through the first two days of training camp, Williamson has been one of the last players off the floor, staying after practice to get extra work from beyond the arc. He also spent much of the offseason focused on the same thing.
“This summer was about breaking that,” Williamson said. “Just playing the game, trusting my game.
It was a point of emphasis this summer. Trusting my jumper.
Getting those shots up. Whether I was playing pickup (games) away from the team or with the team or just getting shots up.
Just trusting it. If I miss, I miss.
The next shot is going in.”
That kind of willingness could matter a lot for New Orleans. If Williamson is willing to stretch the floor more often - even with midrange jumpers - it opens things up for everyone around him. He knows it, which is why he has been finishing practices by making at least 50 3-pointers.
“It is about taking what the game gives you,” first-year Pelicans coach Jamahl Mosley said. “We stop practice and look at situations where teams are loading up on him. And then we’re giving him the answer to that test.”
For Williamson, the challenge is simple enough in theory and much harder in games: read the defense and react.
“He is so dynamic and so athletic that he can get to the lane pretty much anytime he wants,” Mosley said. “So our ability to say, ‘OK, read what the game is giving you.’
If there are two or three in front of you, now you’ve got to come off of it. Or if they are backing all the way up, then you’ve got to feel comfortable, which we absolutely do feel comfortable taking that midrange.”
There’s been no shortage of practice shots from Williamson over the years, but the Pelicans will need to see it in real games before anyone fully buys in. Still, people around him sound convinced this time is different.
Saddiq Bey, who worked out with Williamson in South Carolina this summer, said the two even had shooting competitions during those sessions. Bey wouldn’t say who won, but he was clear about what he saw from his teammate.
“He can really shoot it,” Bey said of Williamson. “I think that may surprise a lot of people. He has great form and can really shoot it.”
Bey, entering his second season with the Pelicans, said he saw only four Williamson 3-point attempts last year and wants much more of it now.
“We want him to shoot it,” Bey said. “I told him this summer I need you to shoot as many as possible.
I know the entire city of New Orleans wants him to shoot, too. He’s confident.
Playing pickup with him this summer, he’s been shooting it well. So I can’t wait to see it in a game.”
That’s the part Pelicans fans have been waiting on since that electric night in 2020.
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