{"id":694225,"date":"2026-04-02T16:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694225\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:47:16","slug":"pelicans-star-zion-williamsons-honest-answer-on-future-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694225\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans star Zion Williamson’s honest answer on future | Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> star forward Zion Williamson<\/a> understands that his time in the Crescent City could come to an end in the not too distant future as another disappointing Pelicans season draws to a close.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports<\/a>, Williamson gave an honest answer about the state of his future with the Pelicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Orleans is home for me,\u201d Williamson said to the national outlet. \u201cIt\u2019s where I want to be. But at the end of the day, if we\u2019re going to be realistic about it, the NBA is a business. I could be traded in the offseason, or I could be traded before [next season\u2019s] trade deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that I want that to happen. But that\u2019s just the realism of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, Williamson has averaged 21.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. He\u2019s played 59 games so far, and he\u2019ll be eligible for NBA postseason awards if he plays each game for the rest of the year. If Williamson finishes the season, it\u2019ll be the second-most games he\u2019s played in a year in his career.<\/p>\n

Despite having the seventh-worst record in the league in a year where many NBA Draft experts have called this class \u201chistoric<\/a>,\u201d the Pelicans currently do not have a pick. In one of the first moves made in the Joe Dumars-Troy Weaver regime, New Orleans traded up from No. 23 to 13 and an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to select Derik Queen. The chance to miss out on a generational prospect adds weight to the expectations of Queen to lead the franchise to championship-contending status. Queen, 6-foot-9 and Williamson, 6-foot-6, have often clashed in a crowded frontcourt this season while on the court at the same time. As Queen\u2019s shooting range has been limited and Williamson has only attempted four 3-pointers this season, it\u2019s natural to wonder if both will remain with the team headed into next season.<\/p>\n

According to the Yahoo! Sports report, Williamson and his camp have received no message from the Pelicans indicating he\u2019ll get traded. Williamson is set to make $42.17 million next season and $44.89 million the following season.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, he\u2019s a borderline All-Star who makes a lot of money,\u201d a Western Conference executive told Yahoo! Sports. \u201cThat\u2019s the sort of player a lot of teams are now avoiding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Orleans Pelicans star forward Zion Williamson understands that his time in the Crescent City could come to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-694225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanspelicans","14":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}