Since Zion's first game as a Pelican, there have been doubts about his long-term future with the franchise. After the Anthony Davis trade, New Orleans basketball hasn't been the highest quality form of entertainment, and fans in the area have grown hungry for some success.
As a big fish in a small market and struggling team, there has always been a sense that Zion is just too big for NOLA.
Nevertheless, Pelicans VP David Griffin says he never had any doubt that Williamson wanted to stay with the team-long term, which is why he inked that impressive $193 million deal earlier this month.
“In terms of whether he wanted to stay, Zion had always been very clear with us about what he wanted, about what his goal set was. He never wavered off of that.”
Williamson didn't play a single game this past season, and the Pelicans failed to gain traction without him, falling to 8th in the West before eventually losing to the Suns in the first round of the playoffs.
The good news is, better days are ahead for the Pelicans. With Zion at full strength and fully committed to the team, they should be a force to fear in the West next year, especially with CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram.
For Zion's part, the deal he wanted is done. All he has to do now is show up in shape and pick up where he left off.
"Zion Williamson was ecstatic to sign this new contract to stay in New Orleans, this is a deal he wanted to get done," said Shams Charania. "I think the big question this offseason was gonna be, if he does sign, will there be protections, will there be games played. There's been a lot of injury protections you can think about. We saw the max contract Joel Embiid signed in 2017, there were a lot of protections. Games played, injuries protections that if the team wanted to get back the money they owed him on the max deal they would be able to waive him and get back the money. Sources tell me there are protections in Zion Williamson's max extension but this is a deal that he wanted to get done."
The Western Conference is going to be loaded next season. The Suns, Clippers, Nuggets, Mavericks, Blazers, and the Warriors are all expected to be competitive.
If the Pelicans want to be more than a great regular-season squad, they are going to have to work harder than they ever have before to prove they belong with the best of the best.
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