The new 2024-25 NBA season has brought a lot of change to this league, but it's also seen a lot of steadfast storylines remain true. For example, Stephen Curry is leading the Golden State Warriors to the top of the Western Conference standings, LeBron James continues to break and set new all-time records, and Zion Williamson is sidelined due to injury for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Zion going down with a hamstring injury wasn't necessarily surprising, but it wasn't any less disappointing than his past setbacks. If anything, it was even more deflating this time around as he'd just come off the healthiest season of his career last year and significantly slimmed down in the offseason. A healthy and reinvigorated Zion along with a strong supporting cast featuring several All-Star-caliber players gave the Pelicans legitimate hopes of contention, but, now, they're stuck at the bottom of the West and the light at the end of the tunnel is nowhere in sight.
If anything, the misery train may have moved backward for the New Orleans faithful, as ESPN's Shams Charania recently reported that the team is quietly bracing for Big Z to be out longer than his initial 4-6 week timetable, which would have seen him back around mid-December. The NBA media has consistently pushed this narrative that the Pelicans' future may not include Zion, surmising that he would eventually demand a trade out of the Bayou due to repeated shortcomings from the team. That sentiment may ring truer than ever before now, but it's not because Zion might ask out; it's because the Pelicans may decide to cut bait.
Zion Williamson's contract offers the Pelicans an easy out
According to The Athletic's Will Guillory, Zion Williamson's five-year, $197 million max contract extension that he signed in 2022 included some interesting stipulations. A clause in that deal made it so that the last three years of his agreement are non-guaranteed because he only played in 29 games in the 2022-23 NBA season, the year before his current contract kicked in.
Because of that, the Pelicans could technically waive Zion at the end of this campaign and free themselves from his remaining cap hits. Of course, there's almost zero chance that actually happens.
New Orleans is now in the sixth year of the Zion Williamson experience however, and there have certainly been more lows than highs in his reign. If the Pelicans fail to make the playoffs this year, an increasingly likely possibility, it'll be the fourth time they've fallen short of the postseason in six tries in the Zion era.
He's lost virtually three entire seasons to injury, over half of his career coming into this year. If this season also winds up a lost campaign because of his unavailability, it'll make it two out of six years where he was actually able to make an impact. Through five seasons, Zion has yet to play in a single playoff game and it's looking like he'll add another one without making his debut.
At this point, it would no longer be absurd for the Pelicans to consider trading him away. Part of that equation has always been figuring out which teams would be willing to take on a $40 million per year cap hit for a player who's always injured. Not only would they have to be inclined to take on his contract, but they'd also have to pay handsomely to acquire him in the trade.
Well, it's a lot easier to trade for him now. With his contract being non-guaranteed after this season, there's essentially no risk in taking him on, aside from the assets the team trading for him would have to sacrifice. Even if his new team had to waive him due to injuries or poor play, there's still a silver lining in that scenario: they'd wipe $40 million per year off their ledger.
There are stipulations that allow Zion to partially guarantee some of his salary moving forward. For example, if he winds up playing 61 games this season — which is almost impossible now — 20 percent of his salary next season gets locked. But, that shouldn't dissuade any teams from trading for him, as his hitting that kind of milestone would make him worth the money. The Pelicans shouldn't be thinking about their future post-Zion just yet, but they have the flexibility to make it work if it comes to it.