Is Williamson + Ingram Redundant?

Even prior to CJ McCollum showing up, in my mind, if not in this blog, I did question the pairing of Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.  It wasn't really a big deal back then, when Zion was living the hoagie life.  But now he's on the court and looking quite healthy, but the Pelicans, despite having one of the most-talented, well-rounded and deepest rosters in the NBA. often look mediocre on court.

The problem is that Williamson and Ingram's playing styles are too similar, as in being ISO oriented.  And the reality is that it's very rare that a team with two ISO studs win a championship.  Two chucks don't make a right, and off the top of my head, the only such pairing I can think that won it all was Wade + LBJ with the Heat.  But even then you can't call Lebron a chuck, and he was averaging over 6 assists, and Wade added a respectable 5 on top of that.  The Heat also had Chalmers, which is something I want you to keep in mind for what I have to say later.  But by contrast, so for this season Zion + Brandon are averaging less than 8 assists combined.  And you can't really blame them, because unlike Lebron or Wade neither really has PG experience.

There's two ways I would try to rectify this situation.  First would be for Zion to spend like all of his time offensively in the post.  That's why I recommended a few articles back that he studies the footwork of Barkley, the best postup player I've ever seen.

But the thing about Williamson is that in his case, it's true what they say - once he pivots and drives to the basket, there really isn't anything a defender can do without risking being plowed over.  Zion's style of play requires him taking riskier shots than he needs to, but at least they go in.  So I can't really make the argument that he has to play in the post, like I would with AD for instance.

So the only second alternative, the way I see it, is to let Alvarado start at point.  That's what I was getting at by mentioning Mario Chalmers earlier.  LBJ used to chew dude out because, you know, he's not a stud like him and Wade and Bosh.  But that was exactly what the Heat needed, someone playing alongside those dudes in a position to handle the ball who could then balance them out.  The problem with Jose though is that sometimes he chucks.  And he also find himself open a lot, meaning that if dudes actually passed him the ball, like the way the NBA is these days he'd have to shoot or be labelled a Ben Simmons or some shit.  But hey, he is so far hitting 40% of his threes.  And if the coach drills into his mind that his job is to facilitate, he would have the weapons around him on par with any other starting five in the NBA.

CONCLUSION

Sometimes, no matter how talented a roster may be, it takes time for them to gel.  But in the modern NBA by the time the gelling starts, usually one or more of the key pieces is ready to move on.  So time is not to be taken for granted .  Now everybody likes to picking on the Lakers, but at least AD + LBJ got their championship when they were supposed to.  So hopefully the Pelicans will get their shit together, because I still kinda believe that Zion didn't want to play for them to begin with.