Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre discuss the reports ahead of next week’s draft that the Pelicans are looking to move up to the no. 2 or no. 3 pick and the simultaneous rumors of a possible Zion Williamson trade, the case for trading Zion, the case for keeping him, and whether his off-court drama is a detriment to his value as a player.
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29 Comments
Trade him, he don’t like New Orleans. That’s the only way we go see him play
Zion "head and shoulders" best player on Pels is insanely stupid take. His rebounding is subpar per position, his defense is super questionable. Ingram is probably fairly close.
Remember when people said the Pelicans won the AD trade?
Joel Embiid sat out for two straight seasons and then barely played his "rookie" year. He was worth the wait because of how great he was when he finally did play. I think Zion COULD be similar. It's worth hanging on to him a bit longer and seeing if things improve.
Zion's potential is the best on the Pelicans. He's delivered much less than the average player at his position, because he DOESN'T PLAY.
Zion's 3 years in the league: 24, 61, 29 games. Stick WAY overly bulked upper body without enough lower body strength.
as Pelicans GM, i am NOT trading Zion Williamson.
for what?
he came into the league at 19yrs old.
I don't care about his first contract of 5 years; i am paying him pennies vs whats he's worth during his prime years.
look at Joel Embiids first four years.
look at Blake Griffins first four years.
look at Bradley Beal's first four years.
look at Michael Porter Jr first years.
NBA players primes are usually btwn ages 26-31yrs old.
trading a former #1 overall pick before their prime seems a bit rushed to me.
i need Zion playing during his prime years and his max contract years.
who cares if he misses +100 games before that (when im not paying him a lot).
…and other than missed games, what (real) reason is there to even consider trading him?
Zion Williamson is a 6'8 Giannis….
I guess my big concern with the off court stuff was that the other woman was claiming that she was his motivation to stay in shape. Was that what was said or am I remembering it wrong?
Woz makes the best point: We as outsiders can talk all we want about how Zion should be traded, but do you really want to be the GM that does it? If (and i know it's a big if) you trade Zion and he finally gets his head straight and fullfills his potential, you as a GM are COOKED. You'll be destroyed by the fans and the media for eternity. Then, when you someday get fired or leave the job, you will forever have the scarlet letter of trading him. Its gonna be difficult to be a GM again after that. If you take this gamble and lose, then you've just committed career suicide. That's why if I'm the GM, I have to get assurances from the owner about my long term job safety.
The fact that Zion got paid shows what a joke the nba is.
I remember the non stop coverage being that Zion was a better talent coming out since lebron james. First take ran that for weeks it seems
If he goes to a new spot and reaches his full potential, how can they really regret it that much though? Maybe that's not even possible to happen in New Orleans.
I can’t listen to anything Wos is On.
I would move off of Zion as fast as I can. Klay and Murray both worked so hard to come back and perform from ACL injury and Zion just is lazy and want to stay a bigg boy shows his level of professionalism
Head and shoulders is a stretch Ingram is almost as good
Everyone in the NBA should be rated objectively 1-20 and that's how much their contract is.
So like a 4 is a $4M a year, a 17 is $17M a year…
But then the incentives go crazy
Winning MVP is $35M, all NBA is $25M etc
Lead the league in steals $5M, top ten is assists $4M etc
That way, if you are rated a 19 and you are under contract for three more years and it doesn't work out, like Klay when he was hurt, your salary cap isn't blown on someone who isn't contributing and it doesn't fall on the player that they're an albatross to the team
As for who is rating players objectively, they're all tucked away somewhere in the Himalayas with league pass and the only one whose identity is known is Kevin O Connor.
Once a year, a week before the draft he descends from the mountains and hands the ratings directly to Adam Silver who reads them all in order.
There is one 21 in the league at any given time and that players team gets some kind of special thing im not sure what, maybe just $10M whether they get MVP or not 😂
How much of it is him being hurt vs the organization babying him? I feel like he misses a lot of games dude to load management Bs
dude was literally healthy near the end of last season and just chose to not play.
he's done lol
There are a lot of players who are injured almost every season in the big moments, yet they are top 10 player’s potentially when healthy. Im putting Zion, Leonard, AD on this list
I hold on till he retires.
I’d tell him just be ready for the playoffs and expect 40-50 games total a season.
Expecting a dude who isn’t built for basketball to play it without getting injured is a tough ask.
i dont blame the Pelicans for wanting to trade Zion.
they just went through this with Anthony Davis. Him missing games didnt just happen when AD got to LA the Pelicans have had to deal with that when they drafted him and now history is repeating itself
Bagley, Bogdanovic, Hayes and No. 5 for Zion. Screw it.
The guy is a loser. Trade him. Doesn't even put in the effort to be fit. Makes dumbass decisions. Cut him lose before he's worth less.
What idiot GM wants Zion? Zion will be lucky if he’s still in the league in 5 years.
I’d get off Zion for Scoot ngl but then I’m moving Cj and Valancunias too
Big Z once in a lifetime talent. Pelicans would be crazy to let him go now. Great debate by Justin , Rob and Wos.
Trade him to Indiana, it'd be a great fit!
Laughable to trade Zion. Think of it as a GM, spent your whole career trying to get to this job and here’s the risk reward.
Trade him and he never gets healthy again, you maybe get an attaboy 4-5 years from now.
But if he plays 65+ games next year and averages his 28-8-4 on 65% TS, you’re fired…instantly.
If he does it 3 of the next 4 years, you will NEVER work as a GM again…ever.
Sometimes i feel like I'm yelling into the abyss. WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD TEAMS MAKE A CALL ABOUT THIS GUY?!!!He's fat, lazy, entitled, AND injury prone……..everyone will be lining up to help out the Pelicans!