Zion Williamson might be the New Orleans Pelicans‘ opening-night starting center. Does that make him a “big” in today’s more vague positional dictionary? Reasonable minds can disagree on this, I suppose, but this is my list and so I’m going to make a ruling.
No, Zion Williamson is not a big man.
For starters, he’s 6-foot-6. He’s an insignificant rebounder. He’s not a rim protector. He cannot credibly defend real centers. The fact that the Pelicans are either going to start him at center or at least play him significant minutes at center doesn’t mean he’s a center. It means the Pelicans are kind of screwed.
Alas, Williamson is a wing — a power forward, to this point, on the technical lineup card — but a penetrator who begins most of his possessions either initiating offense like an actual point guard or from perimeter cutting blocks. From there, yes, he has massive interior advantages due to his power and lower-center leverage that feeds into his explosive athleticism. Allow him to get his momentum going and it’s a wrap.
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But remember, Jalen Brunson also overpowers many of his positional counterparts in paint, particularly in the post, but that doesn’t make him a big man, either. Zion has positional advantages as a wing and he has major disadvantages as a big. You can look at it like that, too.
All of this is to say, again, Zion is a wing, and barely a top-10 one at that, according to our CBS Sports annual top 100 players list published earlier this week. Below is a positional breakout of that list with the top 10 wings heading into the 2024-25 season, as voted on by our 10 NBA analysts.
Top 100 rank: 21
Williamson was once again sidelined with an injury when the Pelicans’ 2023-24 season ended, but this felt different. His absence in the playoffs was a bummer, not because it prompted unpleasant discussions about his conditioning and commitment, but because his play over the previous few months had completely changed the conversation.
Williamson strained his hamstring as he made a floater over Anthony Davis to tie New Orleans’ play-in game against the Lakers in crunch time. The shot gave him 40 points; on one of the biggest stages of his career, he had come through with one of his finest games, leading a fourth-quarter comeback that would fall short after he checked out.
In the best shape of his career, Williamson showed that he could handle heavy minutes while carrying a heavy playmaking load and competing defensively like never before. He appeared in a career-high 70 regular-season games, and, right at the end, he even took a few jump shots when opponents sagged off of him. Now all the Pelicans are asking of him is to produce like an MVP candidate for a full season while they continue trying to put together a roster that can surround him with the defenders and shooters they need to make a leap. — James Herbert
Top 100 rank: 20
George was finally healthy last season, when he reached the 70-game mark for the first time since 2019. Once again, though, the Clippers’ hopes were dashed by an injury in the playoffs, this time to Kawhi Leonard. And so, five years after returning home to Los Angeles, George packed his bags and signed with Philadelphia in free agency. He’s not the player he was at his peak, and injuries will always be a concern, but he remains a terrific two-way wing who should be a perfect fit alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. — Jack Maloney
Top 100 rank: 19
A perennial top-10 scorer in the league. Mitchell registered career highs in assists, rebounds and steals last season. He was sensational when Darius Garland was out and he assumed total control of the offense as the lone playmaker. He is virtually unstoppable when he gets going downhill as a pull-up shooter given his force, but his pull-up shooting percentages (35% overall and 30% from 3) dipped considerably last season. — Brad Botkin
Top 100 rank: 18
Though he was once again unable to stay healthy in the playoffs, it’s easy to forget that Leonard was able to play in 68 games last season. For most of that time, he looked every bit like one of the best players in the league again at 23 PPG and better than a 62% true-shooting clip. He’s still one of the deadliest pull-up shooters with his ability to separate late, as evidenced by his 1.2 points per possession in isolation — the league’s most efficient mark among all players with better than a 15% isolation frequency. Over a two-month stretch from the turn of the calendar to the end of February, Leonard made 46% of his 3-pointers on almost five attempts per game. — Brad Botkin
Top 100 rank: 15
Nearly a decade ago, Brown was welcomed to the league with boos from Celtics fans upset that he was their selection at No. 3 in the 2016 NBA Draft. Now, he’s a franchise icon and one of the most beloved athletes in Boston. He stamped his status with a spectacular playoff run, in which he hit the two biggest shots: the game-tying 3-pointer in the waning seconds of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals and the game-sealing jumper in Game 3 of the Finals. He was named Eastern Conference finals MVP and Finals MVP. There aren’t so many jokes these days about Brown’s left hand or $300M contract. — Jack Maloney
Top 100 rank: 14
Booker has arguably become one of the most underrated players in the league and among the most efficient. He’s a killer in the mid-range, and if he gets hot, he’s liable to drop 40+ points on you, and he wouldn’t even have to take very many 3s. He’s the type of plug-and-play guy any championship-contending team would love to have, and last season, we finally saw Booker’s versatility after primarily playing point guard for a Suns team lacking in that department. It resulted in a career-high year in assists for Booker, showing that not only is he one of the best shooting guards in the league, but you can also put him among the best point guards, too. — Jasmyn Wimbish
Top 100 rank: 10
Edwards jumped from 22nd on this list last year to 10th this time around, which emphasizes his stunning ascension to stardom. He averaged career-highs across the board last season, made his first All-NBA appearance and led the Timberwolves to the Western Conference finals, upsetting the defending champion Nuggets en route. Early in the Wolves’ playoff run, there were legitimate comparisons — at least aesthetically — to Michael Jordan. Over the summer, he reiterated his status as one of the game’s best by playing a leading role in Team USA’s gold medal campaign. — Jack Maloney
Top 100 rank: 9
Durant remains pretty close to the height of his powers. Last season he averaged 27-6-5 on 41% 3-point shooting, and perhaps most importantly, he played in 75 games — by far his highest mark since leaving Golden State. The were rumors that he didn’t love the way he was being used by Frank Vogel. It will be interesting to see what kind of difference Mike Budenholzer makes in terms of Durant’s spots and shots and the way he receives the ball; i.e. in stationary positions or off more of his preferred pin-down screens. Either way, Durant was the best isolation scorer in basketball last season. — Brad Botkin
Top 100 rank: 8
LeBron James recently became the oldest player ever to win an MVP award in any competition featuring active NBA players when he was named the most valuable player of the 2024 Olympics. This breaks a record that he himself set during the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament. Sure, it’s unreasonable to expect the impending quadragenarian to be the NBA’s best player over the course of an 82-game season anymore, but make no mistake, in a smaller sample, there still might not be a single player in all of basketball that inspires more fear in his opponents than LeBron James. It’s not clear how many MVP awards of any variety are still left in his aging body, but when he needs to, he can still summon all of the skill and ferocity that won him his first. — Sam Quinn
Top 100 rank: 7
At long last, Tatum is an NBA champion. Along the way he passed his idol, Kobe Bryant, for the most playoff points before turning 27 and joined Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan, LeBron James and Nikola Jokic as the only players to win a title while leading their team in points, rebounds and assists during the postseason. Tatum didn’t win the Eastern Conference finals or Finals MVP awards, but he was the driving force for Boston’s league-leading 18th championship. Few players, if any, are as well-rounded as the Celtics star, who is one of just three players to make All-NBA First Team in each of the last three seasons. — Jack Maloney
