Atlanta Hawks: Zion Dream Done, Yet Hope and Options Remain

The Winner of the Zion Williamson Sweepstakes: The New Orleans Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans are the big winners of the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery, winning the number one pick from the seventh slot. They became the third team to move ahead of the Atlanta Hawks, pushing the Atlanta pick down to number eight. They also had a six percent chance to win the NBA Draft Lottery, but had two more number combinations than the Dallas Mavericks and one more than the Memphis Grizzlies, due to winning the tiebreaker. Now Wooden and Naismith Award winner Zion Williamson, will begin his career with New Orleans. The draft lottery has been kind to the Pelicans, as they have now won the lottery in the two best years to win, since LeBron James was selected number one overall in 2003. First the Pelicans took Anthony Davis number one overall in 2012 and now will select Zion Williamson with the first pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

Here is every Zion Williamson dunk from his freshman season, courtesy of the ESPN YouTube channel:

Zion Williamson now on board, New Orleans gets the most anticipated number player to enter the NBA since LeBron James. He will bring a big boost to the Pelicans on the financial side, in regards to ticket sales, merchandising and national television appearances. On the basketball side, New Orleans hopes the pick will help convince disgruntled star Anthony Davis who has requested a trade, to stay. If not they certainly have a tremendous building block in Zion Williamson to build around, along with the treasure chest of assets, they would get should they trade Davis. All that you need to know about Zion Williamson can be found in this Atl All Day article.