How Pelicans can unlock Zion Williamson’s midrange game with ‘answers to the test’

Every NBA defense knows where Zion Williamson wants to go with the basketball. Opponents have spent years crowding the paint, building walls around the rim and daring the New Orleans Pelicans to beat them from anywhere else. According to early reports from training camp, Jamahl Mosley believes the solution is not to reinvent the two-time All-Star’s offensive game but to give him enough counters to make those strategies increasingly difficult to execute. That means expanding the 26-year-old’s comfort zone beyond the restricted area without sacrificing the explosiveness that makes him one of basketball’s most difficult players to contain.