“This partnership hasn’t even come close to reaching our best” – Pelicans exec says they still believe in Zion Williamson despite injuries and drama originally appeared on Basketball Network.
After the blockbuster trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers — shocking the entire NBA community — one thing became clear: no one is safe.
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The man who just months prior had led the Dallas Mavericks to the Finals and led the league in scoring with averages of 33.9 points, 9.8 assists and 9.2 rebounds per game, was traded. He was the Western Conference Finals MVP, made the All-NBA First Team for the fifth consecutive year and had just turned 25.
When Nico Harrison decided to pull such a radical move by trading away the face of the franchise, citing dissatisfaction with his physical conditioning, you can bet players like LaMelo Ball, Zion Williamson, Ja Morant and Joel Embiid asked themselves — are we next?
From that moment on, especially under the new CBA rules, the teams have to be extra careful with every dollar spent; max contracts won’t be handed out so easily anymore. Zion was definitely top of mind in this context, given his injury history, and heading into the new season, the New Orleans Pelicans front office responded.
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“Zion is still our guy. If he wasn’t, we could have waived him for like nothing on the books. We could have reset everything. But we believe in Zion. He wants to make it work, and so do we. This partnership hasn’t even come close to reaching our best yet,” a New Orleans Pelicans front office executive said.
Off-court issues have so far defined Zion’s career
Williamson is one of those “chosen ones” who, at least for now, hasn’t reached the ceiling many predicted for him. He was supposed to be LeBron James’ successor. Still, issues with weight, constant injuries and off-court distractions have so far defined his career.
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However, Joe Dumars, Detroit Pistons legend and the new GM of the Pelicans, has taken a hard line with Williamson. He urged him to stop wasting his potential.
“I’ve talked to him about the responsibility of being great and the responsibility of being a leader, of being a captain, of being the best player, of being the face of a franchise,” said Dumars. “I’ve talked to him about how all of those things come with responsibility and how it’s time now, at 25 years old, to embrace those responsibilities.”
When healthy Williamson is a menace
Dumars, a man with a championship mindset, clearly doesn’t plan to continue with Williamson along the same path the franchise has followed so far. That’s exactly why he was brought in this April, to turn things around. Though, to be fair, other injuries haven’t spared the team during the Zion era either.
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When healthy, Williamson competes for a spot among the top 10 players in the league. This is a guy who, in his sophomore season, averaged 27.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists on an insane 61.1 percent shooting. He’s never averaged below 20 points per game in his career, with incredible efficiency.
Everyone in the Pelicans organization knows the kind of potential Zion has, and it’s worth emphasizing — he’s only 25. But very soon, if he doesn’t get it together, he could find himself in the same position as Doncic.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 24, 2025, where it first appeared.