Duke’s Zion Williamson Picked #1 in NBA Draft, To the Surprise of No One

The experts–and a lot of the non experts-predicted that Duke forward Zion Williamson would be the Number 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. The only question was which team would get the #1 pick. The New Orleans Pelicans were the lucky ones, winning the draft lottery. The Pelicans did trade their best player, Anthony Davis (who had requested a trade during the season) to the Los Angeles Lakers for players and three first round picks including this year’s after it was clear they’d get the top pick. In all, the Pelicans had three picks in the first round this year.

Expectations are through the roof for Williamson, but the Pelicans are building a team for the future with all those high draft picks, and not just looking at Williamson as the one piece of the puzzle that’s missing. Williamson has all the tools necessary to be a LeBron James type of dominant player and will be exciting to watch next season.

Here’s Zion’s highlight video from this past season at Duke: