Zion Williamson admitted he is still not where he wants to be in his NBA career while detailing his offseason work, shooting development and the greater leadership role he expects to take on with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Speaking during Pelicans media day on Monday, September 28, Williamson was asked where he believes he currently stands in his career.
“I’m not where I want to be,” Williamson said.
Asked where he wants to be, the Pelicans forward repeated his assessment.
“I’m just not where I need to be. I’m not where I need to be. Not where I want to be.”
Williamson enters his eighth NBA season after appearing in 62 games in 2025-26, his highest total since playing 70 games in 2023-24. He averaged 21.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 29.7 minutes per game while shooting 60.0% from the field.
The 26-year-old said his offseason was focused on trusting the process and working with several people to find new ways to improve.
“For me it was just trusting Chris with his process, you know, with my body,” Williamson said. “Working with Tespoon a little bit, working with Sham a little bit, working with coach a little bit. Just working with different people, looking at the game different ways, just trying to find different ways just to get better.”
Williamson believes he made progress mentally by becoming more comfortable trusting his game and the work he has put in.
“I would say I’ve improved with mentally trusting myself and trusting my game,” he said. “Just trusting the work I put in to the point to where I’m not second guessing myself. I would say I’ve grown a lot there.”
Expanding his shooting was another major focus. Williamson said he wanted to move away from being overly concerned with perfect shot selection and instead become more willing to take jumpers during games.
“This summer was about breaking that and just playing the game, trusting my game,” Williamson said. “It was a point definitely this summer with the work, just trusting my jumper, getting those shots up.”
His approach to missed shots has also changed.
“If I miss, I miss. Just the next shot going in,” Williamson said.
Williamson also expects more responsibility from himself as a leader under new head coach Jamahl Mosley.
“I would say more leadership definitely,” Williamson said. “More leadership out of me, and just not demanding greatness from myself but demanding it from my teammates, my coaches and just everybody in the building.”
Williamson praised Mosley for prioritizing the individual before basketball and said their conversations have included frequent discussions about the game.
“He’s a pretty straightforward guy,” Williamson said. “You can tell it’s not just basketball for him. He cares about the individual first and then he’ll get into basketball.”
The Pelicans went 26-56 last season, but Williamson said the team’s offseason chemistry has given him confidence. He also stressed that relationships alone will not be enough to change the team’s results.
“It does give confidence, but at the end of the day, we still have to go out there and make it happen,” Williamson said. “We can be best friends all we want, but if we don’t yield results, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.”
Williamson also said he and Joe Dumars have not had meaningful extension discussions, with their focus instead on improving after last season.
“We got to be better than this,” Williamson said. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. We just got to be better than the previous two years.”
