The New Orleans Pelicans are a team in need of deep introspection. They came into the 2024-25 NBA season looking to make a deep playoff run after getting a healthy, 72-game campaign from Zion Williamson the year prior and trading for All-Star point guard Dejounte Murray in the offseason. With good health and a roster chock-full of high-end talent, the Pels presented themselves as potential dark-horse title contenders in a league without any overwhelming favorites.
Unfortunately, New Orleans did not get good health. Instead, their entire core was ravaged by injuries in the early season, essentially eliminating them from playoff contention just a few weeks into the year. This left the team in an identity crisis, equipped with a roster to win in the immediate present but no path to a postseason berth.
It was thought that the Pelicans would pick a clear direction at this season's trade deadline that just passed. In a sense they did by finally parting ways with Brandon Ingram, sending him to the Toronto Raptors in return for veteran contracts and draft capital. New Orleans finally gave concrete acknowledgement that BI's pairing with Zion was subpar and abandoned it. Now though, they have three potential cornerstones to build around moving forward, and Zion Williamson has done his best this season to ensure that he remains the face of the Pelicans franchise.
Zion Williamson is doing all he can to remain the Pelicans' cornerstone
Before the trade deadline, there was speculation that the New Orleans Pelicans could cut bait with Zion Williamson too this season. After all, they had just lost another full campaign due to injuries. This year, multiple core players went down for extended periods, but the Pels had grown accustomed to having their aspirations dashed due to Zion's inability to stay healthy in the past.
Clearly, the New Orleans brass has decided to give it at least one more try with Big Z — unless they end up trading him this summer, of course. With Williamson still on the roster though, the Pelicans now have three potential cornerstones that they could realistically build around for the future, including Zion.
The second candidate is Trey Murphy III, who has taken advantage of this injury-riddled campaign to ascend into legitimate stardom. He's by far been one of the most improved players in the NBA this season and has emerged as a potential building block for the Pelicans moving forward, either alongside Zion or in place of him.
Lastly, New Orleans is on track to land a top-four pick in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft. This incoming class is expected to have several blue-chip prospects worthy of leading a franchise, with players like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, and Ace Bailey all looking like future All-Stars.
Between Zion, Murphy III, and their new prized rookie, the Pelicans have three good options to be the face of their franchise moving forward. With how the Williamson era has gone so far in New Orleans, it wouldn't be too surprising to see the team shift directions simply to shake things up due to the underwhelming heights they've reached with Zion leading the way so far.
On the other hand, despite the Pelicans' disastrous season, Zion has showed over and over again this year that the Pelicans should not only keep him around, but also prioritize his strengths over everything. He's quietly stringing together his most dominant campaign so far, averaging 31.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.1 blocks per 36 minutes this season, all of which would be career highs.
It's a small sample size, as he's only played in 19 games this year, but his weight loss and renewed conditioning from this past summer has remained and has had a visible effect on his game. He's as unstoppable as ever attacking the rim, but his first step is quicker, is energy is more relentless, and his defensive effort has been miles better. It's clear watching him why the Pelicans aren't ready to give up on him yet. When he's right, he's absolutely one of the greatest players in the entire NBA.