New Orleans Pelicans: 4 star contracts that line up with Zion Williamson’s

The New Orleans Pelicans could pursue one of these stars during Zion Williamson’s rookie deal.

The New Orleans Pelicans are in an interesting position. On one hand, they have young talent that will take patience to develop.

On the other, they have a potential generational superstar Zion Williamson who is on a value contract, so forget patience, they should go for it now.

I tend to fall into the second camp. There are too many things that could go wrong, so the Pels should push in their chips and go for a title during Zion’s rookie deal.

The Pels have ample draft capital to make a trade for just about anyone and still have draft picks leftover, so they wouldn’t have to sacrifice the future in order to trade for another star.

They should avoid anyone whose deal runs longer than 2022-23, which is the final year of Zion Willamson’s contract.

Here are four guys that the Pels could realistically get without trading away all of their picks or taking on money that runs past Zion’s. Getting a player like this is how the Pels speed up their timeline, get deep into the playoffs and ensure Zion wants to stay for the long term.

New Orleans Pelicans: Stars whose contracts fit with Zion Williamson-Kevin Love

Kevin Love

The Cavaliers have some interesting talent, most of which are in their early 20’s, so Kevin Love doesn’t really fit their timeline if, in fact, they have one.

Andre Drummond just opted into his massive deal (shocker) so the Cavs would probably love to get rid of Love’s contract in exchange for some cap space and young talent.

Love was disgruntled last year and was clearly fed up playing with mostly teenagers who don’t know how to play or where to be.

The New Orleans Pelicans might be able to pry Love away for the cost of a player and a few draft picks. They’d likely have to get near the tax to do it, but Love would be a nice fit as a small-ball center with ZIon or as a stretch-four.