After a long season full of disappointment that seemingly dragged on for years, the New Orleans Pelicans have furiously raced out of the gates to begin their offseason. The 2024-25 NBA regular season officially ended just two days ago on Sunday, April 13. Since then, the Pelicans have fired their longtime vice president of basketball operations, David Griffin, and replaced him with Joe Dumars.
This all happened extremely quickly. ESPN's Shams Charania had originally reported just hours after Griffin's firing that Dumars was New Orleans's top replacement candidate, but nothing was set in stone at that time. One day later, the team made it official and hired Dumars as their new President of Basketball Operations, throwing caution and Dumars's soiled reputation as a former executive to the wind.
This news may have come as a surprise to many, especially considering Dumars's past with the Detroit Pistons. The timing of it may have been especially unexpected for some. For those who closely follow Shamit Dua and his In the NO podcast, though, they had a decent headstart on the rest of the NBA world regarding Dumars's hiring. Unfortunately, Dua's chain of predictions doesn't stop there, and the next step sees the Pelicans trading Zion Williamson.
Joe Dumars may have a mandate to trade Zion Williamson
For those unfamiliar with Shamit Dua, he's been an independent reporter covering the Pelicans for years now under his In the NO podcast and column. He's garnered his own sources over time and has positioned himself as a legitimate news breaker regarding New Orleans basketball. If there were any other questions surrounding his credentials and reliability, these past couple of days have only strengthened his case as a Pelicans insider.
On his Bluesky account, he had predicted both David Griffin's firing and Joe Dumars's hiring through the information he got from his sources. A few hours later, his reports were officially vindicated. He had another notable post on his Bluesky, one that won't be received too well by a large chunk of the Pelicans' faithful:
"Since it looks like all the rumors are coming true - the final bit of intel have on this whole situation is that ownership will mandate Dumars to keep Willie Green and trade Zion. This is what I have heard.
It's possible the Phoenix situation impacts Willie Green, but this is the plan I am hearing."
So far this offseason, Dua's gone two for two, calling the fates of Griffin and Dumars. If Dua's sources were correct about the shift change for the Pelicans' head of basketball operations, who's to say they won't be right about this reported mandate requiring Dumars to trade away Zion Williamson? It's not like this deal would be completely out of the blue, as there have been whispers prophesying the end of the Zion era in New Orleans.
This sudden definitive shift to cut ties with Zion is sure to be shocking to many, but perhaps it's for the best. With Dumars now at the helm, the Pelicans could remodel their roster construction around a much cheaper and less volatile direction.
Before we all preemptively sever our emotional ties with Zion, Dua went on to report that Dumars is committed to connecting with Williamson and arranging a mend between him and the Pelicans. We'll just have to see how this plays out.