Zion Williamson‘s time with the New Orleans Pelicans has not gone in the direction that the franchise had expected. New reports are suggesting that the front office is ready to move on from the former number one overall pick.
Rumors Suggest the New Orleans Pelicans Want to Trade Zion Williamson
The 2025-26 NBA season is at its midway point, and the Pelicans aren’t even close to the middle of the standings. In fact, they are currently at 13-39, which is the second-worst record in their conference. This has been a familiar place for this franchise over the past few seasons, having made the postseason only twice since 2020.
Now, it seems the front office has had enough of these struggles and is ready for a hard reset. The first step to doing that is by trading away Williamson, who, not too long ago, was likely viewed as the franchise’s centerpiece.
According to Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus, there are people around the league who are convinced that Williamson is going to be moved. The timeline for that, however, is likely to be in the offseason rather than before Thursday’s trade deadline.
“Most competing executives believe the New Orleans Pelicans are ready to move on from Zion Williamson,” Pincus wrote. “But will Williamson be moved by the deadline? The consensus, thus far, has been ‘no.’ Instead, look for Williamson to be shopped ahead of the draft in June.”
Looking back five seasons ago, though, it would have been difficult to imagine that this is where they’d be. That’s because during the 2020-21 season, it seemed like they’d found the star that’d help them contend for many years to come.
That was Williamson’s second year in the league, and in that sophomore campaign, he was already an All-Star. In 61 outings that season, he averaged 27.0 points while efficiently making 61.1 percent of his shots.
Those were promising numbers, but that season seems to be more of an outlier than the standard. Not because he wouldn’t be able to put up the same scoring numbers, but because it was only one of two seasons in which he played more than half the games. He would miss the entire 2021-22 season, then play just 29 games in 2022-23. In 2023-24, he suited up for 70 games, followed by a 30-game campaign in 2024-25.
It’s hard to see Williamson being the leader that many imagined he would be when he was drafted first overall in 2019. Not because he doesn’t have the talent, but because his health concerns rear their ugly head too often to ignore.
Trading Williamson in the summer might be easier, when teams have more flexible finances. After all, he does command a hefty contract worth $197,230,450 over five years, which he signed back in 2022. This season is only the third year of that contract, which means any team that wants to take him will need plenty of cap space over the next couple of seasons.
