Zion Williamson took the high road after he was suspended for a game by his New Orleans Pelicans. "This is my job, and they were holding me accountable," Williamson explained. "All I can do is be better. There are consequences for your actions, and that was my consequence." It was an admirable sentiment from the former All-Star. It also managed to succinctly summarize the Williamson era in New Orleans to date.
Improvement is always right around the corner. Every year begins optimistically. This is the year they've gotten the roster right. This is the year Williamson is in superstar shape. This is the year he finally stays healthy. This is the year they put it all together and become the contenders they're destined to be.
Only, it's been almost six years of this, and that salvation never has arrived. Williamson has played in less than 45% of all regular-season Pelicans games in that span without long-term improvement really in sight. How responsible his conditioning is for those absences is unknowable, but we can at least admit it hasn't helped. His scoring has been relatively stable when he's been available. Every other element of his game, particularly his defense, has been inconsistent -- with The Athletic's Jared Weiss noting that teammate Dejounte Murray spoke to Williamson on the phone after his recent suspension about his play on that end of the floor. Speaking of that suspension, Chris Haynes reported that it was not based on a single incident. Williamson has reportedly been late for multiple practices this season on top of the team flight that pushed the team over the top.
It makes all of the talk about accountability ring somewhat hollow. Williamson and the Pelicans have been doing this dance for half of a decade. It never goes anywhere. If someone doesn't accountability for five years, what are the odds that they're going to start in the sixth? If a team spends five years hoping for improvement with no material change in circumstance, do they have any right to expect better in the sixth? We are slowly but surely inching toward the definition of insanity here.
This is not meant to disparage either Williamson or the Pelicans. It is possible and potentially advisable to retain faith in each party here individually. Williamson keeps getting the benefit of the doubt here because he legitimately is an MVP-caliber talent. The Pelicans keep talking themselves into what they could be with him because of how well they've handled everything besides him. David Griffin landed Trey Murphy outside of the lottery, Herb Jones in the second round and Jose Alvarado as an undrafted free agent... in the same summer. They might have overpaid for Dejounte Murray, but now they have a former All-Star in his prime on a team-friendly contract at a time in which team-friendly contracts matter more than ever. New Orleans still has a nice cache of draft assets left over from the Jrue Holiday trade, and could potentially add to it with Brandon Ingram deal. It has promising youngsters like Yves Missi, Brandon Boston and Jordan Hawkins showing promising. It is broadly fair to say that the Pelicans have done a good job of building a roster outside of their association with Williamson. It is also broadly fair to say that Williamson is so supremely talented that he deserves more patience than the average player.
But you can acknowledge these things individually while accepting that the partnership has run its course. The Pelicans can't afford to keep spending seasons waiting for something that may never come. Williamson can't afford to keep talking about accountability while remaining in an environment that doesn't seem capable of holding him to it.
A trade would be a bitter pill to swallow for both sides, especially the Pelicans. Imagine being the team that traded Williamson right before he figures it all out? That's a mistake that gets a front office fired. Even if he never gets it right, the league is as just as aware of the risks associated with him as the Pelicans are. There's no Paul George-level trade package waiting at the end of the Zion rainbow. Williamson is still a positive-value asset—especially as his contract is reportedly currently non-guaranteed—but he's not netting a typical superstar return anymore.
Rumors have suggested Williamson has wanted to move on in the past, but it's not as though he'd have the latitude to choose a new home that most superstars get. Most of the big-market teams that typically attract players like him -- the Lakers, the Clippers, the Knicks -- have spent the bulk of their trade assets and would struggle to put together a compelling package for New Orleans. Sure, there are a few sensible homes in smaller cities. The Miami Heat stand out as a possibility in this regard, both because of Miami's favored status among NBA players and its unyielding commitment to conditioning and culture, but the bulk of teams considering him likely fall into a different bucket.
ZION 360 WINDMILL COME ON NOW 🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/hGuQ1R7FjW
— NBA (@NBA) January 8, 2025
What makes Williamson such a tantalizing trade prospect is that he represents a level of proven talent that is generally inaccessible to the majority of the league. When do proven, young All-NBA players choose to go to, say, Charlotte or Utah? If Williamson's career was going as planned, those teams would be off of the table for him entirely. LeBron James wasn't taking free-agent meetings with the Indiana Pacers. A certain segment of the NBA never has a chance to add MVP-caliber talent outside of the lottery. As risky as Williamson is, the reward is even greater. If he gets it right for you, a championship window opens. The Heat can afford to be choosy with their acquisitions. The Trail Blazers can't. Odds are, if Williamson were to move, it would be to one such team. Somebody that is currently going nowhere is going to recognize that Williamson has a chance to take them somewhere. He might also drive them off of the road, but, well, how much worse is that than going nowhere anyway?
The Pelicans are, under normal circumstances, one such team. That's part of how they landed Williamson in the first place. They have a habit of landing these otherwise unattainable stars on lottery night -- Chris Paul and Anthony Davis being the two other major examples -- and then losing them once those players have the leverage to get to one of the teams stars of their caliber tend to want to get to. They may have landed three of these players across the past two decades or so, but there's a real chance that they wait another 20 or 30 years for another one. There have been 35 seasons of professional basketball played in Charlotte and none have ever produced a First-Team All-NBA selection.
But this season represents a somewhat unique chance to sidestep that worst-case outcome. The 2025 NBA Draft is not only exceptionally strong at the top, but also far deeper with potential stars than most classes. Cooper Flagg may be the belle of the ball, but Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey and VJ Edgecombe all have superstar upside and would have been clear No. 1 picks in the 2024 class. The Pelicans currently have the third-worst record in the NBA. It would behoove them to remain as far down the standings as possible to cash in that 2025 pick for a new potential cornerstone, and having a healthy, contributing Williamson for any stretch of time this season only makes that harder. There are no guarantees where the draft is concerned, but landing anywhere in the top four in this particular draft has a chance to fundamentally change the trajectory of any organization.
The Pelicans aren't far off as it is. They're not the Wizards. They have a strong and relatively affordable cast of young players. They could bounce back relatively quickly, perhaps not with the same upside they've had with Williamson, but with a much more stable future. Even if it takes them out of the immediate championship picture, a Williamson trade sets the Pelicans up to be, for lack of a more eloquent way of putting this, a normal team for a little while. To know what to expect out of their roster and be able to make decisions accordingly. Go win 45 games for a year or two, develop trust in what you have, and then dip into that cache of future draft capital to reinforce it where needed.
Williamson still has a chance at that sky-high upside even if he does wind up playing for a team that isn't traditionally desirable. Maybe such a trade puts a chip on his shoulder. Maybe getting out of the spotlight does him some good. Maybe he's the last core piece for a team nobody is watching yet. Or maybe Miami gets its hands on him, gets him in shape and turns him into the unstoppable force of nature everyone assumed he'd be at Duke.
His future outside of New Orleans is unknowable. It's just hard to imagine it gets much worse than it's been for him as a Pelican. New Orleans needs dependability. Williamson needs a fresh start. Whether it's his fault or just bad luck, he's been unable to live up to his promise as a Pelican. It's time to find out if he can do it for someone else.
