Zion Williamson’s defense is a problem and raises questions about Pelicans’ ceiling

NEW ORLEANS — The Pelicans didn’t lose on Thursday night because of their defense.

They held Portland to 106 points on 43.5 percent shooting. Damian Lillard didn’t play, and Anfernee Simons was held to 5-of-18 from the field.

On most nights, the Pels would have enough offensive firepower to win under those circumstances.

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But on this night, their offense failed them in the second half against the Blazers’ 2-3 zone, resulting in a bitter 106-95 loss at home.

Considering Lillard’s absence, it was probably the ugliest loss of the season for a New Orleans team struggling to find consistency.

Still, the failures on offense are probably fixable with a few tweaks here and there. The much bigger concern is an issue that’s quietly haunted this team all year, and it popped up again late in this game:

Zion Williamson’s defense is a problem.

And it’s not just because he’s getting caught out of position or messing up communication on certain coverages (which has also been a struggle). He hasn’t gotten it done nearly enough when called upon to man up and prevent dribble penetration.

There are some minor fixes New Orleans can make on both ends of the court to deal with the woes that have resulted in the team’s underwhelming 6-6 start. But this franchise’s big-picture goals hinge on their stars’ willingness to make the necessary sacrifices to win. No one will be called upon to embody that mindset more than Williamson on defense.

In certain instances, he’s shown he’s more than capable of making an impact on that end with his strength and quickness. But consistency will continue to evade this group if he keeps struggling the way he has to start the season.

“Collectively, we all have to make a decision that we’re going to guard, no matter who’s on the floor,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “We can mix up some of our coverages … (but) we didn’t guard the ball. They got into paint. They got to the basket. Those are the things that we need to do better.”

When good teams find a weakness in an opposing defense, they go after it repeatedly until the other team does something to adjust. That’s what the Blazers did on Thursday night.

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Almost every time they needed a bucket in a big moment, they threw out the offensive playbook and called Williamson into a pick-and-roll with Simons or Jerami Grant. Once Portland forced the Pelicans to switch and Williamson was left on an island to guard Simons or Grant one-on-one the results were always bad for New Orleans.

In these matchups, Williamson didn’t use his physicality to his advantage, and he struggled to move his feet and stay in front of the ball. With every possession Simons or Grant blew past Williamson, his frustration grew, and so did the home crowd’s impatience.

After only attempting six shots through the first three quarters of the game, Williamson caught fire — scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter — and kept the Pelicans in the game. But it didn’t matter in the end because New Orleans couldn’t string together enough stops.

Green tried to lean on a small-ball lineup with Williamson at the five, hoping it would ignite his team and make it easier to attack Portland’s zone. With these units, the best strategy is usually to switch everything in pick-and-roll situations. But the giant target on Williamson’s back made it difficult to succeed with that group on the floor.

Once it was clear Williamson was failing to hold his own in one-on-one situations, Green switched up his coverage and told Williamson to blitz the ballhandler in pick-and-rolls to force the ball out of their hands. This only allowed Portland to swing the ball to the other side of the court and find wide-open shots.

Williamson’s half-hearted closeout didn’t help on this possession either.

Williamson ended the game with 29 points, and his fourth-quarter explosion was the only thing that prevented a full-blown collapse for New Orleans in the fourth quarter. But it’s tough to survive in some of these back-and-forth games when things get tight if so much effort has to be put in to cover up the weaknesses of one of your best offensive players. This is why Green has often turned to Larry Nance Jr. over Jonas Valančiūnas in the fourth quarter this season.

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While Williamson has acknowledged in the past that there’s work to be done to reach his full potential as a defender, he said on Thursday night that some of the Pelicans’ defensive schemes call on him to defend in different ways. In his mind, the entire team has to be on the same page to execute these schemes at a much higher level than it did against Portland.

“I think when people are watching on TV, they don’t know what’s really going on in the huddle,” Williamson said. “My coaches are telling me to do a certain thing, push the man a certain way or guard a certain way. It’s not that I’m not guarding. I’m just playing to our game plan. They did a great job executing off it.”

There is some truth to his statement. But in the end, there are certain points when everyone on the court has to lock in and defend the person in front of them. If anyone shows they’re incapable, the spotlight gets shined on them until something changes.

This will be the dance Williamson has to deal with repeatedly for the rest of this season — and perhaps the rest of his career — until he does something about it.

Williamson is capable of being a good defender. The physical traits that make him such a load to handle on offense could also be used to his advantage on the other end. He must commit to bringing a consistent level of mental focus and effort to ensure his impact is felt when his team doesn’t have the ball.

But what makes these issues with Williamson so damaging is that it drags the entire team down if one of its best players is a defensive liability.

If Williamson’s bulldozing drives to the basket or acrobatic alley-oop slams are a great way to lift the energy for his team, why wouldn’t his defensive failures have a similar negative effect on those around him?

One of the best examples of this was Luka Dončić in Game 2 of last year’s Western Conference semifinals. The Phoenix Suns came out with a strategy to go at Dončić repeatedly throughout the game to wear him down, and watching Dončić get cooked over and over sapped his team’s spirits.

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But Dončić responded in Game 3 the way superstars are supposed to respond. He brought the fight to Phoenix and didn’t shy away when it challenged him. He didn’t allow himself to become an easy target.

Dallas responded to Dončić stepping up the way he did and went on to win four of the next five games to end the Suns’ season.

No one expects Williamson to look like prime Dennis Rodman at this point in his career, but he has to play with much better energy on the defensive end. He has to show he’s willing to commit to the greater goal like most of his teammates do on a nightly basis.

That doesn’t mean his teammates are without blame in any of this. They can do a better job of helping him out and keeping him out of matchups that don’t work well for him. However, that commitment needs to be equal on both ends. That’s where the sacrifice comes in for a player who’s also called upon to score 20-25 points every night.

Once there’s a clear belief among Williamson and his teammates that everyone is willing to lay it on the line every night on defense, it will look much better than it has these past few weeks.

“I think he did a good job of sitting down and forcing some tough shots,” CJ McCollum said of Williamson. “We rotated well. We did some hits, we did some shows. We mixed in a lot of different stuff. … We’ve just got to load up and help him.”

These struggles aren’t the end of the world. It’s just the growing pains most young teams go through as they learn what’s required to win consistently.

After the 2020-21 season, there was plenty of talk about Brandon Ingram’s willingness to commit on the defensive end and how much his struggles negatively impacted his teammates. Like Williamson, some questioned if he would ever become an above-average defender.

Over time, Ingram has played with much-improved effort as a defender. He’s gone from being considered a terrible defensive player to one that’s above average in the eyes of many.

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Williamson will improve over time as the scrutiny grows around this part of his game. He wants to be a good teammate, and he cares about winning. This will push him to improve these obvious weaknesses.

But how long will it take him to get there? Will he show the necessary growth in a couple months? Does it start to show next season? Will it take even longer than that?

The answer to that question may ultimately decide how far the Pelicans can go this year. We know about the abundance of offensive talent this roster boasts. But is everyone among this group willing to sacrifice on the other end for the greater good?

That question will begin and end with Williamson. Once he fully grasps what it takes to be a big-time two-way player, it’ll change his career and lift the ceiling for this franchise. If he doesn’t get there this season, perhaps we need to reassess just how dangerous New Orleans will ultimately be in the West.

“This is what really builds character,” McCollum said. “Everything’s not supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be difficult. You’re supposed to go through some trials and tribulations. It’s about how you respond.”

(Photo: Stephen Lew / USA Today)