The New Orleans Pelicans played their 12th game of the season without Zion Williamson on Tuesday. They fought gamely against the Minnesota Timberwolves before coming up short in overtime. The young and exciting Pelicans, led by the Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen pairing, showed that this team can still be fun and easy to root for. To fully embrace that, however, they need to officially end the Zion Williamson era.

Williamson is headed towards missing more than half the games in a season for the fifth time in his career. He will miss at least three weeks with a right adductor injury, and since it’s Zion, it will almost certainly be longer. At that point, the Pelicans’ season will effectively be over. But the Pelicans will have a few weeks before the trade deadline to make their obvious next move: trade Zion Williamson.

Zion Williamson Era in New Orleans Is Over

At this point, the Pelicans can’t delude themselves into thinking that maybe Williamson can stay healthy and be a part of this team long-term. They also can’t afford to wait until Williamson increases his trade value. Williamson may not have much trade value right now, but there is absolutely no guarantee that his value will go up.

The Pelicans likely won’t get significant draft capital in a Williamson trade. If they get a worse contract in exchange for Williamson and get a few assets for their troubles, they should be more than happy. They would be lucky if they had more than a couple of interested suitors.

But the return package almost doesn’t matter. The Pelicans just need to get out of the Zion Williamson business. Williamson has worn out his welcome in New Orleans, and both sides need a fresh start. Delaying the inevitable is only making it harder for both the Pelicans and Zion to kickstart their new chapters.

Parting ways with a franchise star is never easy. It’s especially difficult when you are the Pelicans and have invested so much in Williamson. The Pelicans didn’t do enough to surround him with a good enough roster when he was healthy, and Williamson didn’t do enough to stay healthy. Instead of rehashing the past, however, the Pelicans need to accept that things just don’t work out sometimes. It’s time to move on and fully embrace the new era of Pelicans basketball.

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