Contrary to the swirling murmurs that suddenly appeared this summer, the New Orleans Pelicans didn’t entertain a potential Zion Williamson trade.
As he recently appeared on SiriusXM NBA Radio with hosts Justin Termine and Amin Elhassan during this year’s Summer League, Pels Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin cleared the heightened speculations about their probable cutting off ties with Williamson, noting that they didn’t even have any single trade negotiation from other teams which starred the All-Star.
“We never had a single conversation that Zion was part of. I think people perceive that we would be willing to move off of Zion because of all the injuries, because there’s always so much noise around Zion. And fortunately for us, the noise never actually matches what we’re really experiencing,” he said, via nbcsports.com.
Williamson enticingly appeared as a rumored trade candidate for the Pelicans during their previous pursuit of prized prospect Scoot Henderson. Ultimately, their hunt didn’t materialize to success as the G League prospect landed to the Portland Trail Blazers for the No. 3 pick of the 2023 NBA Draft.
The case for the Pelicans to give up on Williamson comes from the fact that the big man is yet to achieve a full season of availability and injury-free. Since his rookie year started in 2019-20, he only logged 114 total games. Last season, despite posting his second All-Star campaign, he was limited to just 25 games of play because of hamstring issues.
Amid Williamson’s ongoing challenging times to get healthy – and the fact that many remain to wait for a trade to be executed – Griffin made it known that the franchise still has a strong relationship with the camp of the former top overall pick.
Williamson’s massive max rookie scale extension will officially kick in on the upcoming season, and all signs remain pointing at New Orleans’ desire to contend and be optimistic about the forward’s capabilities and potential to play.
I would say that it’s as good as it’s ever been,” Griffin said of Williamson’s relationship with the team.
“I think what’s unfortunate is that he’s a name that generates clicks no matter what the link says.”
