The Pelicans are heading into training camp next week with a familiar set of questions, and Zion Williamson sits right at the center of them. New Orleans needs a better season from him than last year, even if last season was already his best in a while.
That urgency comes with a clock attached. Williamson has long been a fixture in trade talk, but the Pelicans never really seemed ready to move him while he still had years left on his deal.
Now that runway is shorter. He has only one more year under contract after this season, and a decision will have to come soon.
The first issue is the most obvious one: can he stay healthy again?
Williamson earned real credit last season for changing the way he handled his body and his availability. He was more willing to play through minor issues, and that showed up in a career-high 35 straight games.
Even so, the concern never fully went away. He reached 60 games for the third time in his career, but he has never done it in consecutive seasons.
There’s always some luck involved with health, but Williamson has not exactly given New Orleans much reason to trust the pattern. Another year interrupted by injuries or nagging problems could push his future with the Pelicans into serious doubt.
Then there’s the shot that everyone keeps waiting for him to lean into: the mid-range jumper.
Any time Williamson takes one, it gets attention. Makes or misses, fans notice.
If defenses had to respect him as a pull-up threat before he attacked the rim, that would change the way he’s guarded. It has been a talking point for years, with supporters hoping he won’t shelve it the moment the misses come.
Still, it hasn’t shown up often enough. Maybe the new coaching staff can help bring it out more consistently.
That matters even more because New Orleans does not have enough three-point shooting to create easy spacing on its own.
The final question is bigger-picture and harder to ignore: what happens when Williamson and Derik Queen are on the floor together?
The spacing concerns already complicate things, and the pairing raises another long-term issue. Joe Dumars compared the situation to when people once doubted Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown could work together in Boston.
But the numbers from last season were rough. Williamson and Queen shared the court for 674 minutes, and the Pelicans were minus-12.3 in net rating with that combination.
Both ends of the floor slipped badly.
That’s especially notable because Queen is the younger player and the one this front office traded up for. If New Orleans ever has to make a choice, the team is likely to lean toward him.
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What stands out is how deliberate the front office has been in treating each addition as part of a broader roster reset. The contracts have drawn favorable reviews for value, and the common thread is that these moves seem aimed at building a different kind of Pelicans team rather than simply adding names to the depth chart. There is still an evaluative order to how the deals stack up, but the larger picture is already clear enough: New Orleans has spent the offseason making subtle changes that could matter a lot once the games start. [Read more 🡒]