Zion Williamson’s Latest Injury Forces Pelicans to Rethink the Future - Again
Another season, another Zion Williamson injury. This time, it's a grade 2 right hip adductor strain, and the Pelicans say he’ll be re-evaluated in three weeks.
But if you’ve followed Zion’s career, you know how little that timeline really means. Three weeks could turn into three months in the blink of an eye - and New Orleans has been living in that uncertainty for years now.
At one point, the Pelicans had no choice but to keep betting on Zion. He was the No. 1 overall pick, a generational talent with All-NBA upside.
And when he's on the floor, he still looks like that guy - only Giannis Antetokounmpo is scoring more points in the paint this season. The explosiveness, the touch, the sheer physicality - it’s all still there in flashes.
But the flashes are too few and far between. Seven years into this experiment, the Pelicans are still waiting to see what a full season of Zion actually looks like.
And at this point, it’s fair to ask whether that season is ever coming.
What’s different now is the context around him. The front office has turned over.
Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver are now steering the ship, and while their early tenure hasn’t exactly set the league on fire, they also don’t carry the same emotional investment in Zion that the previous regime did. They’ve already made a bold move toward the future, trading a significant package to land Derik Queen - a clear signal that they’re thinking long-term.
So far, Queen has delivered. Among rookies, he’s seventh in scoring, fourth in assists, third in rebounds - and more importantly, he looks the part of a future franchise cornerstone.
But the Queen-Williamson pairing? That’s where things get complicated.
Offensively, there’s real firepower. When both are on the floor, the Pelicans are scoring 120.3 points per 100 possessions.
That’s elite territory. But they’re also giving up 123.3 per 100 - and that’s where the problems start.
Neither Queen nor Zion is a rim protector. Neither stretches the floor as a shooter.
And when you’re building a modern NBA roster, that’s a tough combination to work around.
Ideally, Queen would be flanked by a defensive-minded big who can stretch the floor just enough to keep defenses honest. Someone who lets Queen operate with space while covering for him on the other end.
That’s not Zion. And with Queen, Jeremiah Fears, and Trey Murphy all needing touches and developmental reps, the Pelicans are entering a new phase.
One where Zion’s role - and future - is no longer a given.
Make no mistake: Zion still holds weight in that locker room and on the court. He leads the team in usage by a wide margin.
But that becomes a tricky dynamic when injuries keep pulling him in and out of the lineup. One week the Pelicans look like a playoff-caliber team built around a dominant interior scorer.
The next, they’re a young, guard-led squad trying to find its rhythm. That kind of instability makes it hard to grow, hard to develop, and nearly impossible to plan.
And that’s the heart of the issue. The Pelicans haven’t had any real continuity since Zion arrived.
Every season has been a reset. Every injury forces a new identity.
Now, with Queen in place and the outlines of a young core forming, it might be time to start planning for life after Zion - not as a reaction, but as a strategy.
Normally, this is the part where trade rumors start flying. What could New Orleans get for Zion?
Which teams would be interested? But the reality is, that market just isn’t there right now.
Not for a player with this kind of injury history and this kind of contract.
Zion is owed max money in both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons - but here’s the twist: none of that money is guaranteed yet. His contract is structured with weight checks and games-played incentives.
Twenty percent of each year’s salary is tied to weight benchmarks. The other 80% is unlocked by hitting games-played thresholds - 41, 51, and 61 games, respectively.
That gives his contract some unique value. A team with a bloated, guaranteed deal they want to dump could trade for Zion, not play him, and waive him before the guarantees kick in.
That’s a cap-saving maneuver, not a basketball move. And that’s the kind of return the Pelicans might be looking at - taking on another team’s bad money in exchange for Zion, and maybe picking up an asset or two depending on how desperate that team is to clear space.
It’s not ideal. But given New Orleans’ historical reluctance to spend big, it might be the most realistic path forward.
With Zion off the books, the Pelicans wouldn’t have a single player among the NBA’s 50 highest-paid next season. That opens up flexibility.
And this rebuild - because that’s what this is starting to look like - is going to take time.
The longer the Pelicans wait, the longer that rebuild takes. Sometimes, the cleanest break is the best one for everyone involved.
Zion, with his injury history, shouldn’t be asked to carry a franchise anymore. He should be playing limited minutes on a deeper, more stable team - and at a far lower salary.
He’s not a max player right now. And as long as he’s in New Orleans, those expectations will continue to weigh him down.
They’re holding him back. They’re holding the team back.
It’s time to lean into the next chapter. See what Queen and Fears can become.
Give Murphy more of the offense. And yes, maybe embrace a couple of lean years to build this thing back up - even with that 2026 pick heading to Atlanta.
This isn’t about giving up. It’s about being honest about what’s working and what’s not.
At some point, a franchise has to stop issuing press releases about setbacks and start making progress. The Pelicans may be at that point right now.