The New Orleans Pelicans can’t afford to tie themselves to Zion Williamson without a fallback.
Williamson has opened the season strongly, and when he’s been on the floor, he’s shown exactly why he remains such a difficult player to move off of. But the larger issue hasn’t changed: he has rarely been available enough to make him a safe bet as the face of a franchise.
Last season, Williamson played in just 55 games. There was, however, a real encouraging stretch inside that campaign - he logged 50 straight games for the first time in his career. Paired with the fact that he’s in better shape, that at least gives New Orleans reason to believe he may be heading into this season with a healthier outlook.
Still, hope is not a plan. The Pelicans shouldn’t assume Williamson is their cornerstone until he proves it over time.
The cleaner approach may be to view him as a bridge for a younger New Orleans team that is not yet ready to contend. Williamson is only 26, but the rest of the roster skews younger and still needs time.
That uncertainty is why New Orleans has to stay flexible. The organization appears unconvinced that Williamson is the true franchise player, and the trade chatter around him has never really gone away. So for now, the smartest move may simply be to let the season unfold and see what kind of version of Williamson shows up.
If he stays healthy and produces, the Pelicans gain options. They can keep him and reassess whether he’s finally someone worth building around. Or they can lean into the other possibility: if his play boosts his value, a trade becomes part of the backup plan and keeps the team pointed toward the future.
What New Orleans can’t do is just hand him that franchise-player label by default. He has to earn it.
If he does, the path is obvious. If he doesn’t, the Pelicans need to be ready to move on.
That’s especially true because the roster itself is still a puzzle. New Orleans has a cluster of younger pieces like Derrick Queen, Jeremiah Fears, and Yves Missi, along with players in their prime such as Williamson, Jordan Poole, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy III, and Herb Jones.
Even with that mix of talent, the team still lacks a clear identity. The roster feels more like an accumulation of names than a finished product, and the Pelicans probably should have already cashed in some of that value. A stronger front office likely would have moved Murphy III for a couple of firsts and Jones for a late first-round pick or several seconds.
Instead, New Orleans is left trying to figure out what it actually is, with a bottom-five team attached to that uncertainty.
Maybe Williamson changes the whole equation. Maybe he plays 70 games, makes an All-Star case, and helps the Pelicans become a feisty team again while unlocking the roster around him.
That’s the best-case outcome. But until that happens, New Orleans has to keep the door open to something else - either a pivot away from Williamson or a trade that fits a longer-term plan.
In Other News...
Jokis Postgame Frustration Put Nuggets Fans On Edge After Comeback Win
The Pelicans watched Denver dig itself into a deep first-half hole, with the Nuggets trailing by more than 20 points before turning the game around and escaping with an overtime win. It was the kind of comeback that usually settles a building down, but the atmosphere had already turned tense when the home crowd started booing during the early deficit.
Nikola Joki did little to cool that edge afterward, making clear he noticed the reaction and was bothered by it. With his future beyond this season still not fully settled, the Nuggets star has said he wants to stay, but nights like this only sharpen the scrutiny around how Denvers top player feels about the environment around him. [Read more 🡒]
Former Pelicans Defensive Spark Gets A New Chance Worth Watching
The Thunder made a roster move this week after Otega Oweh was waived following a torn Achilles tendon in the preseason, and the opening was filled by a familiar name for Pelicans followers. Oklahoma City turned to Micah Peavy on a two-way contract, giving the former second-round pick another chance to carve out a role in the league.
Peavy spent last season in New Orleans, where he got into 61 games and showed the kind of defensive energy that can keep a young player in the mix. For the Pelicans, it is another reminder of how quickly those back-end roster pieces can move, especially when a player who had already flashed in New Orleans gets an opportunity elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Pelicans Keep Crumbling Late And The Biggest Reason Is Growing Clear
The early-season scorecard has been ugly for New Orleans, and the concern goes well beyond an 0-3 start. What has stood out most is how much the Pelicans have leaked in the final five minutes of close games, where their numbers have fallen apart and the group has yet to find a reliable way to close things out. For a team built around trying to stay competitive deep into games, those late stretches are turning into a recurring problem instead of a small sample blip.
Zion Williamson and Dejounte Murray have been the focal points in those moments, and the results have not matched the burden they are carrying. New coach Jamahl Mosley has said he is looking at the season in five-game batches before making any major decisions, which gives the Pelicans a little runway to sort out what is going wrong. Still, the longer the clutch struggles linger, the harder it gets to ignore how sharply the final minutes have tilted against them. [Read more 🡒]