Pelicans make their decision on Zion Williamson’s future

The New Orleans Pelicans are not ready to turn the page on the Zion Williamson era just yet.

Joe Dumars, who is the new Pelicans head of basketball operations, spoke on Wednesday in an interview with The New Orleans Times-Picayune. During his remarks, Dumars made the definitive statement that the team still plans to build around Williamson and will not be trading him.

“We’re going to go forward with Zion,” said Dumars in the interview. “He’s going to continue to be a focal point here as we go forward. 

“I sent him to [represent the Pelicans at] the [NBA Draft] lottery for a reason,” Dumars added. “I want him to start focusing on the responsibilities of being the best player here and the focal point. There are some responsibilities that come with that. Go represent your organization.”

Dumars also said in the interview that he has had some “really good” and “direct and honest” conversations with Williamson recently. You can read the full interview here.

Now 24, Williamson has been facing increased speculation recently over his future with the Pelicans. That is in large part due to the troubling lawsuit that was filed against him last week by a woman claiming to be his ex-girlfriend. The lawsuit against Williamson contains allegations of rape, assault and more (though Williamson’s legal team has strongly denied all the allegations).

Williamson has had numerous issues plague his personal life in recent years and is also now being threatened with a lawsuit by another woman he used to be romantically involved with. In fact, Pelicans ownership was recently said to be furious about a separate incident that occurred at Williamson’s home this past April.

On top of that, Williamson and the Pelicans have a long history of failing to see eye-to-eye on basketball matters. Williamson, who has had well-documented problems with weight and conditioning throughout his NBA career, has only played in 214 total games since getting drafted in 2019 (a span over which the Pelicans have failed to win even a single playoff series to boot). The latest incident between Williamson and the organization came a few months ago when he took a public shot at the team’s load-management plan for him.

But despite it all, the Pelicans, who just went a woeful 21-61 this season, still surprisingly remain committed to Williamson. That might be in part due to a continued belief in his talent, and it also might be in part due to the fact that it would not actually be as advantageous financially for New Orleans to cut ties with Williamson right now.