ENOUGH: Should the New Orleans Pelicans MOVE ON from Zion Williamson?

ENOUGH: Should the New Orleans Pelicans MOVE ON from Zion Williamson?

Another super long injury for Zion Williamson was met with another overtime loss for the New Orleans Pelicans. And luckily, there’s another episode of Locked on Pelicans. Let’s get into Wednesday episode. You are Locked On Pelicans, your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. Welcome to another edition of Locked on Pelicans, the daily podcast covering your favorite team, the New Orleans Pelicans, part of the Lock on Podcast Network, your team every day. And now, the number one sports podcast network in the nation. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Join over 12,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube. You can also watch us on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. It’s where you’re already watching your games. You’re listening to Antonio Daniels and Joel Meyers. I’m your host for today, Pelicans Insider, credentialed member of the media, Dylan Sanders. You can find me over on Twitter, Dilly Sanders, and I’m also the publisher of Pelicans Round Table, which is a fun community of basketball fans. Come hang out with us over there. Talk about your your latest Pelicans thoughts. Today, we’re going to be talking about the young players from the team showing some fight. why that’s a a good thing to take away from this three and 19 start. We’re going to talk about the the loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime. Heartbreaking loss, but I think we have to start off today with the biggest news out of the day. Zion Williamson. Uh, another long injury, a long absence for him. I think it’s time to move on. We’re going to talk about that right off the bat. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. All right, I think I I have to start off this conversation with this. There is no at all ill will towards Zion Williamson. I am sure, unlike what a lot of people, I think, think he does not want to miss every game. He doesn’t want to. He would rather be out on the court playing than sitting on the sidelines injured. There’s no part of me that believes that he is getting hurt on purpose or, you know, not wanting to be out there, but that’s just simply not the case. He is out all the time. I’m going to read off through seven years his games played. 24 games played in 2019 2020. 61 games played in 202021. That was the co year. It was shortened. He missed all of 2021 2022 for injury. 29 games played in 2022 2023. 70 games played in 2023 2024. That’s a, you know, a positive sign. only 30 games played last year and he’s played in 10 of the 22 games so far this year and who knows when he’s going to suit up next for the Pelicans. Sham Serenia uh broke the news earlier this morning that Zion Williamson would be missing an extended period of time with a right adductor strain. Now, that’s it is said that he’s going to be re-evaluated in 3 weeks, but that means nothing really. If you look at the the Jordan P injury timeline, the Herb Jones timeline, these, you know, re-evaluations aren’t a good, you know, barometer for how much time a player is actually going to miss. And Shames also followed up his initial report by saying he missed two and a half about about two and a half weeks to start the season. This one is expecting him expected to sideline him for much longer than that. So at minimum 3 weeks, but we’re probably looking at I mean I guess via ShraMMs way longer than that. And my first question is what happened? We know he was dealing with the hamstring. He played against the Golden State Warriors. He missed uh against he missed the game against the Lakers out of for rest. It wasn’t this strain that was brought up. Nothing was brought up. And then he was taken off the injury report completely. And then now this morning out of nowhere he’s out for weeks. What happened? Where did this come from? And I think that exact feeling of like how did this happen? Where does this come from? is the exact feeling that makes me think the time for Zion Williamson on the New Orleans Pelicans should probably come to an end at some point soon. There’s just I mean you you walk into the Smoothie King Center today and the attendance was down again there people were upset people whenever they showed like the inactive list on the jumbotron they it said Zion Williamson out there you could hear people being like oh every time someone walked past us they were talking about Zion Williamson and honestly with how much this team this fan base is frustrated right now you you can’t be frustrated at him for not playing if he’s not on the team. I and I I think whenever he is on the court, he is, you know, a game changer. This team is better with him on the court, uh, you know, metrically, visually, it kind of looks like they’re playing just as good, if not better without him. Who knows if that’s like more of a James Burggo thing and think the system kind of clicking. On defense, they’re definitely better with him. On offense, it’s kind of a question right now. But he is an offensive game plan, offensive system all in in and of himself. Whenever he’s on the court, he can take a game over. He’s, you know, a guaranteed 20 25 points every night. It feels like it’s so that’s why it’s so hard to give up on him. But seven years of the same thing, never knowing if Zion’s going to be able to play in the next game, never knowing how long he’s going to miss, trying to enter a season with some sort of hopes, building your entire game plan about h around having Zion, and then after two weeks that’s completely ruined. He’s out. A number of players are out. There are times in this game where you’re playing three rookies, two players on twoe contracts, and that actually ended up being the one of the lineups that looked the best. Uh we’re going to talk about that a little bit later, but it’s just frustration, constant frustration. If everything that happens around this team is all about the frustration of the fan base, and a lot of it stems from Zion Williamson’s in availability. I’m sure that he could go somewhere and still have a great long NBA career. He’s a super talented player, but I just don’t think that there’s any argument to be made that at at this point that he should be in New Orleans for much longer. That stinks because at one point he was like the savior of the city. The the vibe whenever he they won the lottery, they didn’t even draft him. They just won the lottery to be able to select him. the the vibe around the city was great. It felt like they finally had like after the frustration around Anthony Davis’s into his career, Chris Paul, the drama around his exit in New Orleans, it felt good to finally have another young player to get excited about and now it’s gone. It’s just constant constant frustration. Now it becomes a question of do they trade him? I can’t believe his trade value is very high right now. at at some point his contract’s not fully guaranteed. You could just wave him and and be done with it and kind of have as of how I believe it to be. He could under he could get waved right now, get cut and you deal with the money this year and then because it’s not guaranteed after this, it doesn’t have any effect. At some point, maybe that’s the way that they go. And I’m sure there are a lot of fan fans right now that would say, “Yeah, just just cut them and cut your losses. Be done with it.” But I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s the best idea. At some point, he’ll come back maybe this year. Who knows? Uh and maybe a team wants to to play him. Who knows if they want to pay him as much because after another injury, he’s played less than 50% of his available career games. It’s hard to really sell that on someone. It’s hard to sell it to the fan base of the team that he’s been on for all these years. It’s definitely hard to sell it to an opposing GM to actually get anything of value, but no matter what, I think it’s time for the team to move on. Builder on the young players they have have now. Jeremiah Fierce uh is the youngest NBA card uh to have back-to-back 20point games in history after tonight. Derek Queen, the defensive things are are not great right now. I think he has a good defensive potential, but the offense is fun to watch. He is uh he’s fearless going up against like a Rudiggo Bear, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Rand tonight. He’s an amazing passer. These are exciting things that I think the fan base needs to be able to build around. No more setting up the expectations of a new Zion, a new year change happening because it’s not happening. And people are getting frustrated that they keep get getting fed the same spiel at the beginning of every season to only for it to not actually happen. I hope Zion goes on and has a great career after this, but I think it’s time to call it an end in New Orleans. Figure out some way to move on from uh from the biggest distraction that the team has had, and that’s saying something. All right, let’s talk about the team that took the court on w on Tuesday night without Zion and what happened in the loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 1994. And with 48 teams for the first time ever, it’s going to be massive. But let’s be honest, getting tickets is usually the hardest part. That’s why the Game Time app is clutch. Finally, giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. 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The number one’s Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelican’s team. So please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join all of us over on YouTube or on the Gulf Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. And we are part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Now the number one sports podcast network in the nation. I I want I want to give a shout out to some of our everydayers, the everyday club. Fist of the Black Star, MC Evander, Pelid 59. These are the models of our community. Drop your comments, your everyday comments. I know y’all already have dropped a comment on this video by the time you’re listening to this because y’all are our y’all are some of our everyday darers. So, Everyday, sound off in the comments. Maybe uh you can be the featured members of the Everydayer Club next time. All right, let’s get into this loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. And man, talk about after all the frustration with Zion earlier in the day. Talk about needing a win. Both literally because now they’re three and 19. The season continues to slip away, but just morally felt like they really needed this one. And they kind of started off slow again to be expected, but it wasn’t as bad as like the Lakers game, per se. But then in the second quarter, it was this lineup of Micah Peavey, Trey Alexander, Bryce McGowens, Derek Queen, Jeremiah Fierce. It kind of changed the tide, turned the tides, started moving into a positive direction, brought the team back into the game, and then like Trey Murphy came in, the starters came back in, fed off of that momentum. The the Smoothie King Center, the fans that were there were were bumping. The vibes were great. They outscored the Timberwolves 43 to 27. They had a 15-3 run to end it almost a 15 to0 run, but it was a a tough and one foul on uh on Rudy Goar at the end there. But the vibes were great and then the second half came and they lost the third quarter bad. They were a little bit more competitive in the sec in the fourth quarter, but it was enough for the Timberwolves to pull ahead and then the Pelicans fought back and then eventually went to overtime. And then as the Pelicans continue to do these overtime games, it was a slow start and then you blink and it’s actually the game’s over. Fans are leaving and there’s like still like a minute left in overtime. But it doesn’t really matter because the game’s over. It’s tough because right now, especially in that second quarter, it’s hard to get excited about anything with a three and 19 record, the worst record in the NBA. But they are actually, you know, I think it’s time I say something positive. They are actually playing really much better offensive basketball. They scored 142 points on the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team that hangs their hat on their defense. like they have Rugo Bear, they have Jad McDaniels, they have even like, you know, they have a bunch of players that hang their hat on the defensive side of the ball and as they should, they’re a very good defensive team. You put up 142 points on them, you dominate them in the paint, you outrebound them, you uh you had more turnovers because of uh towards the end of the game, but for a lot of it, you know, it was an even turnover matchup. you had much better fast break teams fast break uh metrics. The James Burggo offense I think is working. They are running better plays. I think players like Micah Peavey I I’ll say before we talk about him in the next segment. I’ll say like made a great pass tonight to Trey Murphy that normally we’ve seen a lot of players you see Trey Murphy open all the time and but no one makes the kick out. Mike Peavey had the option at two, saw Trey for the easy three. Trey hit the three. That’s, you know, ball movement, the right decisions being made at the right times. I I think that’s something that is a good sign. And really good is that it’s a bunch of the young players that, you know, you have the frustration around all the Zion stuff. If you move on from Zion, if you move on from this current core, you have to turn to the young players. And right now they’re looking like exactly the kind of players that you want to start to build around. And who knows if James Brig is going to get the job after. Uh, you know, you’d have to imagine they start winning some games for that to happen. But I think a good culture being set. Players want to win. Players are showing uh effort. Like this is the exact kind of game you want to see out of Trey Murphy after he has to leave. He also missed a couple games due to uh right elbow soreness and then especially with the Zion injury. This is like Trey this is Trey Murphy’s team now. Even when Zion comes I think right as of now Trey Murphy is the star of this team. He is the face of this team. So on a night like tonight where you have Anthony Edwards who scores 44 points. Rudig goar is getting whatever he wants in the paint. Trey Murphy answered the call. He looked like a star in this game. 33 points. He was had an incredible career-high 15 rebounds, had four assists, only only one turnover. Great game from Trey Murphy. This is exactly what you want to see. And Jeremiah Fears 21 points, seven of 13 shooting. Derek Queen, I think, responded very well because he looked pretty poor. And it’s kind of something we’ve seen with Derek Wayne kind of starting slow, ending ending fast, but you see you saw the confidence kind of grow back at him. 21-point game. Uh, you know, Jos Alvarado hit some big shots. I think it was, you know, a game he didn’t have the best close to the game, but he had some nice moments. Cavon Looney even bought in like Bryce McGows continues to buy in. Sadique Bay, shout out to Sadi Bay, man. He is a hooper. He is just a flatout hooper. 22 points, six rebounds, three assists. I know it’s hard to really buy in right now because of the win loss record and you know you can kind of feel it in the building. You can feel it in the locker room. You can feel it when talking to James Bgo after the games. These this team needs a win at some point soon. Uh things are are getting bad. You know, you kind of hoped the the vibes of that Bulls win are going to help carry them and I think they’ve helped carry him. like I’ve said on the offensive side of the ball. Now, whenever you’re scoring 142 points and losing, I think you can kind of see what needs to happen uh to fix that. The defensive side of the ball has been bad all season, and that’s something that James Bgo has not really been able to improve upon at all. Uh I think it’s it’s more about just being able to adjust to teams scoring on you by building up the offensive side of the ball. You’re not going to be able to outscore everybody every night as we’ve seen. They only have three wins. They only have one win in the past few weeks. That was against the Bulls. But, you know, even in that Bulls game, they scored 130 points on you. Then the the Grizzlies scored 133 on you. The Warriors, that was a game where no one could make a shot, but there were shots to be made on both sides that didn’t get made. The Lakers scored 133. The Timberwolves scored 149. The defense has to get better. That is uh you know the obvious thing. But trying to take a positive out of it. I think the offense has found something that works with these young players with the players that you know are maybe a little bit more reliable to be there for you. There are things to latch on and take into the next game against the Minnesota Timberwolves as well to be happy about. But at the end of the day, it was another loss. Unfortunate. All right, let’s talk about the young players showing fight and why that is important moving forward. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It’s not you against the house. It’s you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It’s people moving the action, so when the momentum shifts, you move with it. I always knew the game, but never really had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part live in a market powered by people. You’re no longer just a spectator. Playbyplay, you decide. Trade every play with Robin Hood. now available across the US. Download the Robin Hood Robin Hood app now to begin. That’s download the Robin Hood app now to begin. And of course, thank you for making plugins your first listen today and every day where you hear Monday through Friday, the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team. So, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Join over 12,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube. You can also catch us on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. I’m your host, Dylan Sanders. You can talk to me here, talk to me in the comments, talk to me over on my website, Pelicans Round Table, about everything you want to know about the New Orleans Pelicans. All right, with amongst the mess, amongst what’s the future of the team, where do they go now? They don’t have their first round pick. They keep losing games, blah blah blah. I want to take a focus on I think the biggest positive of this and that is the young players and I’m not just I’m not just talking about Derek Queen and Jeremiah Fierce. Obviously those who are very big parts of your plan moving forward they are what I believe to be the next central focus of this team once they decided to to move on from this core of players. uh even if that is just moving on from Zion like we talked about earlier. There are other players that people bring up in trade markets uh trade rumors or whatever. Got into that last episode. But if that happens, you have to start from somewhere and where that is right now. It’s kind of the people It’s kind of the people that are are doing the unsung where I I asked Trey Murphy after the game. I was like, “What did you think of the young guys in this one?” because it is it it was that it was that group we talked about earlier where it was the two two-way players, it was three rookies that changed the shift in this game. They played with so much. We talked about it up in the press box like you could see a a mindset change. It’s these players who don’t have tomorrow guaranteed. They’re not making much money. Uh a lot of them don’t have real NBA contracts yet. and you know they don’t they can’t afford to to to sulk around and and be upset with what’s happening. They fought they played hard and even though they were going against guys like Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards uh you know I think the the biggest thing about this team right now is that they’re a simple uh you know talent mismatch. Like they don’t have an AllNBA player to turn to whenever things are going bad. Anthony Edwards takes over in the second half. There is no one like that on this team right now. They just have a bunch of players who are playing their role and doing their best and sometimes it looks good and sometimes it doesn’t. But guys like Trey Alexander is someone I think I would like to see a little bit more of. You know, he was like a mid-range assassin in college and there are not a lot of players that you turn to and are like, “Oh yeah, you can get me a mid-range bucket.” I I definitely I love that. I love that this is the shot that we’ve landed on at the end of this uh possession. But Trey Alexander’s one like he, you know, he shoots it with confidence even though this is just his second game of the season. He takes one step, gets one pass, it’s the top of the shot clock. He just all right, now is the time for me to size up and take a midi. And he hit it. You know, shout out to him. Played 12 minutes. He was a plus eight on the game. Uh like I talked about, he was one of those players that came in and kind of changed the momentum. He he hit a three. He hit a couple of mitties and that’s what he’s going to do. And I, you know, he’s a a young player that I think I’d like to see a little bit more of. Bryce McGawins, shout out to him. He’s he turned into a starter with all these injuries. Uh he’s on a two-way contract and he’s starting games and putting up good minutes. You know, he’s not, you know, jumping off the stat sheet. And I think tonight was kind of a night where he kind of uh you you probably would have liked to have like a Herb Jones in there uh to to close out, but you know, I think he’s doing well with the opportunity he’s gotten. M Mike Peavey in that last game, he didn’t hit any threes tonight, but like in that last game, he hit three. He was three or five from three. He plays hard defense. He’s a great cutter. Um there are a lot of times in this game where he was just set up by a perfect pass from Derek Queen almost, you know, kept he gets caught off guard sometimes when making a cut because Derek Queen meets him with a perfect pass they kind of wasn’t even expecting. And then of course we talk about these young players. Then you have Derek Queen and Jeremiah Fear. Jeremiah Fierce is playing incredible basketball. We talked not too long ago about how in this new like fast-paced scheme, there were a lot of mistakes. Uh he was doing a little bit too much, making the wrong shot decision, kind of playing, you know, holding the ball for a little bit too long. That wasn’t the case right now. Hasn’t been the case for a couple games. He’s playing really good basketball right now. And you know, whenever he’s not on the court in the late in the game, you kind of think like, w is where’s Jeremiah Fears? It feels like he should be in here. Derek Queen, a great offensive night from him. Uh, I think there’s a lot to grow on the defensive side of the ball. He’s still a minus 17, but the point is, if the team has to go in another direction, I think you’re fine with these types of players as the building block. They’re showing a lot of fight and emotion, and that is what a team who has been down in the dumps for a long time needs. the city, you know, should take all of that that love and admiration they’re waiting give some to give someone and show it to these young players because they are they’re ready to accept the mantle of the team. And I think that’s uh a great thing, a great light uh shining on the team right now, especially they need it because there’s no first round pick. There’s no star rookie waiting to come in next year. All right, thank you for making us your first listen today. for your second listen, go check out Locked on Fantasy Basketball and Josh Lloyd because he is uh he can help you win your fantasy basketballs. That’s what he’s doing for me so far. But we’ll see y’all tomorrow.

Zion Williamson’s latest extended injury sends shockwaves through New Orleans, fueling debate on whether the Pelicans should finally end the Zion era. Seven years of uncertainty and persistent absences have left fans and the franchise questioning what’s next for their future—and whether moving forward without their once-celebrated star is inevitable.

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