Zion Williamson has almost next to ‘NO VALUE’ for the Pelicans to trade him 🗣️ – Windy | NBA Today

Zion Williamson has almost next to ‘NO VALUE’ for the Pelicans to trade him 🗣️ – Windy | NBA Today

We want to turn now to another developing story. This one out of New Orleans. Pelican star Zion Williamson. He will miss an extended period of time with a right adductor injury. He’s going to be re-evaluated in three in three weeks. And interim head coach James Bergo spoke last night about the upcoming absence of Zion. Nobody wants to be on the floor more than Zion. He this guy loves the game, loves his city, wears this logo with great pride. He’s here to support us. We’re here to support him. This is a brotherhood. This is a family. And that’s what we’re going to lean into. As frustrating as it is for him, nobody’s feeling sorry for us. We’re not feeling sorry for anybody. We get back to work. It’s time to go. So, since being drafted in 2019, Zion Williamson has missed 55% of his possible games for the Pelicans, including the 2021 2022 season, the entire season. Now, this year, the Pelicans net efficiency, it does improve by 10 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court. So, back here with our Bobby Marks. Bobby, Zion signed his rookie max extension. That was back in 2022, but there are some details in his contract that are particularly interesting as injuries continue to pop up. Can you just remind us of what that is? Yeah, Malik, it’s it’s one of the more unique uh rookie max extensions that we we’ve seen here. He’s got three years left on his contract. This current year, which is right around $40 million, is guaranteed. Okay. Years two and three that are remaining are not guaranteed. So, here you have a what we thought was a franchise level all-star player on a non-g guaranteed contract for the last two years. Both have uh July 15th trigger dates here. So if if you’re a team out there that’s interested in in Zion Williamson, there’s really not much risk about going about trading for him if you do not have to give up something of significance here. So a unique contract. It’s a lowrisk move if you are one of those teams out there, as I said, where you’re not sacrificing draft picks and significant players on your own roster. Yeah, it’s just unfortunate. I mean, because I really thought this was Zion’s year to like get it right, you know, heavy Zion, skinny Zion, like he just can’t get his body in the right space. So, um, to see him go through this and actually be in a year where he’s trying, which it shouldn’t take a a non-G guarantee or a contract year for you to get in that type of shape, but he’s shown that he was committed. You know, he got on the diet, he started working out, started getting his body right, and he became the guy everybody wanted him to be. for him to still go through this while being in a great shape or great his body in the best shape of his life that we’ve seen is is very unfortunate and I feel for him and the organization. Yeah, I I do too. I continue to say that this is just a bummer. NBA fans, we want to see Brian Zion out on the floor and no one wants that as James Burggo said more than Zion Williamson, right? And you have to understand that they have tried just about everything. They have changed training staff. They have changed chefs. They have train they have changed coaches. They have he has changed representation. He has changed workout styles. Trust me, they have seen specialists. They have consulted people all over the planet on how to keep Zion healthy. They are they are continuing to try. And when it comes to what Bobby was talking about, he Zion has almost next to no value right now for the Pelicans because because of these injuries, they wouldn’t be able to get value for him. They don’t control their first round pick this year because they’ve traded a swap to the Hawks. And so they’re they’re in heavily incentivized to try to win as most games as possible. So I know this sounds like a broken record, but I think the pathway forward with Zion is continue support him like James said and continue to try to exhaust all pathways to get him into a space where he can be the dominant player that that he is. Again, this is a right adductor sprain here, strain rather, for Zion Williamson. And we certainly hope that he gets healthy and better and on the floor soon because that’s the best version. We want to see Zion out there on the Oh, what I look like I pull up my brain with the heat on the CDA. [Applause]

Brian Windhorst, Bobby Marks and Danny Green join Malika Andrews on NBA Today to react to Zion Williamson’s right adductor injury and his contract details.

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