Zion Williamson

25-Year-Old ForwardF

New Orleans Pelicans NBA

Questionable

Injury Illness

Est. Return 1/21/2026

2025 Stats

PTS

22.5

REB

5.8

AST

3.5

STL

1.2

BLK

0.6

ROS Projections

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REB

AST

STL

BLK

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2025 Fantasy Outlook

Last year was another injury-riddled campaign for Williamson, who appeared in just 30 games - the fourth time in his six-year career that he's played 30 or fewer games. For context, he's played fewer total minutes in his career than Paolo Banchero. Despite that, Williamson arguably played at the highest level of his career when available, setting per-36-minute career highs nearly across the board. However, he actually saw just 28.6 minutes per game due to injury management and the Pelicans' overall struggles - posting 24.6 points on 56.7 field-goal percentage, 7.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks. New Orleans will look a bit different this season, namely due to trading CJ McCollum for Jordan Poole. Dejounte Murray is still recovering from an Achilles tear as well. The team probably can't perform much worse than the 21 wins they accrued last season, but it's probably not wise to expect a major leap in a loaded Western Conference. Some of that will also depend on Williamson's health. All in all, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of Williamson's fantasy value for the upcoming season. He showed growth, but can he be trusted to play 50 games? He's routinely been drafted in the 30-40 range depending on format, but don't be surprised if he starts to slip into the 50 range in 2025-26 fantasy drafts. Read Past Outlooks

RANKS
Current Season

#28

Last 30 Days

#52

Last 14 Days

From Preseason

#35

ADP

Overall

Height 6'6"

Weight 284

DOB 7/6/2000

College Duke

Drafted 1st Rd, #1 in 2019

Personal Bio/PreCareer Summary

Zion Lateef Williamson was born in 2000 in Salisbury, North Carolina. Zion's mother Sharonda ran track at Livingstone College, and his stepfather Lee Anderson played basketball at Clemson. Starting at the age of nine, Williamson woke up at 5am daily for basketball training. Williamson attended Spartanburg Day School, a small kindergarten through 12th grade private school in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He could already dunk before the start of his high school freshman season. As a junior, Williamson averaged 36.8 points, 13.0 rebounds, 3.0 steals, and 2.5 blocks per game and led Spartanburg Day to their second straight SCISA Region I-2A title. MaxPreps named Zion National Junior of the Year and also gave him High School All-American First Team honors. Williamson posted similar numbers his senior season and led the Griffins to their third straight title. After the season, he was named South Carolina Mr. Basketball and was runner-up for Mr. Basketball USA. After one season at Duke, Williamson declared for the 2019 NBA Draft and was selected with the first overall pick by the Pelicans. Zion enjoys writing poetry, listening to Jay-Z and watching Naruto. Fans can follow him on Twitter and Instagram (@zionwilliamson). Through a combination of jaw-dropping highlights and excellent production, Williamson owned the 2018-19 college basketball season. The 6-foot-7 forward joined R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish to give Duke the top recruiting class in the nation. Over the season, he averaged 22.6 points (on 68.0 percent shooting), 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks. He made his debut against Kentucky in the Champions Classic with 28 points and seven rebounds in the win. Williamson had 14 double-doubles, including a season-high 35 points and 10 rebounds in a loss to Syracuse. He missed the last six games of the regular season after suffering a Grade 1 knee sprain against North Carolina in which his shoe ripped. He returned for the ACC Tournament and averaged 27.0 points and 10.0 rebounds to help the Blue Devils take the championship. Duke advanced to the Elite Eight of The Big Dance and Williamson scored at least 23 points in each NCAA Tournament game. Among his many accolades were AP Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year, and the Naismith Award. After one season with Duke, Williamson declared for the 2019 NBA Draft and was selected with the first overall pick by the New Orleans Pelicans.

Questionable for Wednesday

FNew Orleans Pelicans

Illness

January 21, 2026

Williamson (illness) is questionable for Wednesday's game against Detroit.

ANALYSIS
Williamson was a late addition to the injury report, presumably after waking up under the weather. If the Pelicans hold him out against Detroit, the team could lean more on Saddiq Bey, Micah Peavy and Karlo Matkovic.

Read More News

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How does Zion Williamson compare to other players?

This section compares his stats with all players from the previous three seasons (minimum 200 minutes played)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

True Shooting %
An advanced statistic that measures a player's efficiency at shooting the ball that takes field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and three point percentage into account.
Effective Field Goal %
A statistic that adjusts field goal percentage to account for the fact that three-point field goals count for three points while field goals only count for two points.
3-Point Attempt Rate
Percentage of field goal attempts from three point range.
Free Throw Rate
Number of free throw attempts per field goal attempt.
Offensive Rebound %
An estimate of the percentage of available offensive rebounds a player grabbed while they were on the floor.
Defensive Rebound %
An estimate of the percentage of available defensive rebounds a player grabbed while they were on the floor.
Total Rebound %
An estimate of the percentage of available rebounds a player grabbed while they were on the floor.
Assist %
An estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while they were on the floor.
Steal %
An estimate of the percentage of opponent possessions that end with a steal by the player while they were on the floor.
Block %
An estimate of the percentage of opponent two-point field goal attempts blocked by the player while they were on the floor.
Turnover %
An estimate of turnovers committed per 100 plays.
Usage %
An estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while they were on the floor.
Fantasy Points Per Game
NBA Fantasy Points Per Game.
Fantasy Points Per Minute
NBA Fantasy Points Per Minute.

True Shooting %

62.9%

Effective Field Goal %

58.5%

3-Point Attempt Rate

0.7%

Free Throw Rate

57.5%

Offensive Rebound %

8.1%

Defensive Rebound %

13.6%

Total Rebound %

10.8%

Assist %

20.5%

Steal %

1.7%

Block %

1.9%

Turnover %

10.0%

Usage %

28.9%

Fantasy Points Per Game

37.6

Fantasy Points Per Minute

1.3

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NBA Historical Fantasy Stats

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Our historical fantasy ratings are standard scores calculated using 8-Category settings with 12 teams and 13 players per team.

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Average Fantasy Points

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Past Fantasy Outlooks

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2020

2019

Williamson appeared in a career-high 70 games in 2023-24, but he suffered yet another hamstring strain during the Pelicans' Play-In Tournament loss to the Lakers and was sidelined for the rest of the postseason - New Orleans was swept by Oklahoma City in the first round. In those 70 regular-season appearances, Williamson averaged 22.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.7 blocks with 57/33/70 shooting splits. Even with a relatively healthy regular season, Williamson finished 67th in eight-category leagues. He certainly has more value in points leagues, but the 2019 No. 1 overall pick's poor work from three-point range and at the charity stripe, plus his injury history, makes him a liability in category leagues. The Pelicans finally added a true point guard in Dejounte Murray this offseason, which should increase everyone's offensive efficiency, but Murray could also take away some of Williamson's usage. Williamson may also be asked to play more center in 2024-25 given the departure of Jonas Valanciunas. A boost in efficiency and a couple more rebounds per game could give Williamson early-round value, but he's a safer pick in the middle rounds of drafts.

The main question surrounding Williamson will always be if he can remain healthy. Going into his fifth NBA season, he has played just 114 total games, including missing all of the 2021-22 campaign with a foot injury. However, his production has been elite when he's on the floor. In 2022-23, Williamson averaged 26.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals on 60.8 percent shooting from the field in 33.0 minutes across 29 appearances. If you stretch that out to an entire season, few other players can provide that all-around production and high-volume scoring on that efficiency. While Williamson sat out most of last season with a hamstring injury, there is no indication he will miss time to start the 2023-24 campaign. Surrounded by floor-spacers in CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy and Brandon Ingram, Williamson will have every opportunity to dominate the paint and kick out to open shooters. If Williamson lasts to the fourth round in your fantasy league, he could be a steal if he can come close to his 61 games played from 2020-21.

The brief flashes that we've seen of Williamson have been impressive. He showed he can be a dominant fantasy force during the 2020-21 season, averaging 27.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 61.1 percent from the field. However, injuries have been a problem. He only appeared in 24 games during his rookie season, 61 during his sophomore campaign, and he didn't play at all last season. It appeared late in the season that he might have been healthy enough to play, and there was speculation that he might try to force his way out of New Orleans at some point. Those worries have been put to rest with him signing a five-year, $231 rookie maximum contract this summer. With big money in hand, all signs point to him being ready to play at the beginning of the season. He'll have the most talented group around him yet, with Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum and Jonas Valanciunas all in the fold. There is plenty of injury concern that comes with drafting him, and he could sit out one game of back-to-back sets to begin the season. If you want him, though, you'll likely need to spend a second or third-round selection to add him to your roster.

After a brief-but-impressive rookie campaign, Williamson improved enough as a sophomore to make his first All-Star team. The 2019 No. 1 overall pick averaged 27.0 points on an absurd 61.1 percent shooting while tallying 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 33.2 minutes. That resulted in him ranking 50th in fantasy on a per-game basis. There are still clear holes in Williamson's game -- including his poor free-throw shooting (69.8 percent on 8.7 attempts), subpar defense (0.9 steals and 0.6 blocks) and a lack of a three-point shot (0.2 makes on 29.4 percent) -- but he's so dominant as a scorer that those weaknesses aren't holding him down much. Maybe the biggest indicator of how unstoppable he can be is that he was fouled on 22.5 percent of his shot attempts -- the third-highest number last season of players who saw at least 1,000 minutes and notably above Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid. Williamson also improved as the year went on, and his performances began consistently reaching elevated heights in mid-February. For example, in a 25-game stretch from Feb. 12 through April 11, Williamson averaged 29.5 points on 63.3 percent shooting, 7.4 rebounds and 4.4 assists. He also had 21 games with at least 30 points, plus 14 double-doubles. The sky appears to be the limit for Williamson in 2021-22. He'll still be sharing a decent chunk of the offense with Brandon Ingram and new additions Devonte' Graham and Jonas Valanciunas, but the franchise's focus has to be on making sure Williamson is happy in his role. If he can marginally improve, especially as a free-throw shooter and defender, Williamson has clear second-to-third-round upside, which is likely where he'll be drafted.

Due to a torn meniscus suffered in the preseason, Williamson's rookie debut was delayed until Jan. 22 against the Spurs. He had a fantastic performance, posting 22 points, seven rebounds and three assists in just 18 minutes. He saw under 30 minutes for the next four performances, but still averaged 18.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists. For the final 14 games before the hiatus of the season, Williamson saw 31.4 minutes per game and averaged 18.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.0 steals. Early in the bubble, Williamson was underwhelming but saved it towards the end by averaging 24.0 points in 24.7 minutes in his final three appearances. As impressive as his rookie campaign was, it didn't translate the same to fantasy. On a per-game basis in eight-category leagues, Williamson ranked just 91st, making strong contributions in points (22.5) and field-goal percentage (58.3), but failing to stand out elsewhere. He was especially harmful in free-throw percentage, taking 7.4 attempts per game but making just 64.0 percent. That said, if Williamson can make marginal improvements across the board while also playing minutes closer to the mid-30s, he should be able to boost his fantasy stock significantly, despite obvious flaws in his game.

The Pelicans took no chances during the 2019 NBA Draft, selecting Williamson with the No. 1 overall pick. Williamson enters the league as one of the most-hyped prospects in recent memory -- possibly going as far back as LeBron James in 2003. The Duke one-and-done averaged 22.6 points on an absurd 68.0 percent shooting, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.8 blocks in 33 collegiate games. Williamson will be the focal point of the Pelicans' mini-rebuild in the aftermath of trading Anthony Davis to the Lakers. Williamson is a virtual lock to start from Day 1, though what his true position is at the NBA level remains somewhat of a mystery. At 285 pounds, Williamson has the bulk to play center, but his 6-foot-7 frame suggests he's more of a forward. Complicating things further, Williamson's jumpshot is a clear work in progress, and the Pelicans may have to work to put four floor-spacers around him at all times. What we do know is that he has the potential to be one of the best athletes we've ever seen on the hardwood, and there should be no shortage of gravity-defying dunks, blocks and rebounds. From a fantasy perspective, counting on the rookie to have a high floor as a rebounder, defender and efficient inside scorer seems safe. The other things -- volume scoring, passing, three-point shooting, free-throw percentage -- are cloudy.

More Fantasy News

Efficient effort in Sunday's loss

FNew Orleans Pelicans

January 18, 2026

Williamson recorded 20 points (9-17 FG, 2-3 FT), five rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block over 30 minutes during the Pelicans' 119-110 loss to the Rockets on Sunday.