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The situation with Zion Williamson and his current team, the New Orleans Pelicans, does not look good. After rumors floating around that his family is unhappy in the Big Easy, Williamson has been labeled as a “detached teammate” by former Pelican JJ Redick. Due to all this, there have been trade rumors floating around. One of the teams that have to consider a trade are the Golden State Warriors. Here are two reasons why the Warriors must trade for Zion Williamson this offseason.
Warriors Zion Williamson Trade Breakdown
Aging core without much youth
This is somewhat unfair, as the Warriors do have some young players on their roster. They have the second pick of the 2020 NBA Draft James Wiseman, and a pair of lottery picks from the 2021 NBA Draft, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody. However, both Moody and Kuminga have not looked great this season, and Wiseman is yet to play one game after a solid first season. Of course, it has not mattered much, as the Warriors occupy second place in the Western Conference, but it could spell trouble in the future.
Right now, the core of the Warriors is the quartet of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins. Although Wiggins is just 26, it is tough to say whether he would be an All-Star this year if Klay Thompson did not miss so much time, giving him a lot of offensive space. When it comes to Curry, Thompson, and Green, they are all over 30 and have some injury history behind them. Green has spent the least amount of time out of the three, but he has generally been silent if the team around him is not strong. When it comes to Curry and Thompson, however, the story is a fair bit different.
Although he is a two-time MVP, once unanimous, Stephen Curry is 33 and has a long history of injury problems. While this season he has been great for the Warriors, especially in the first part of the season, he will likely slow down as seasons go and will need help staying effective. His Splash Brother, Klay Thompson, just got back from a two-year absence from the league. He had continued knee issues and while the Warriors did have a great first half of the season without him, he is still an integral part of any possible title run of the Dubs.
All of this leads us to believe that if they need anything, the Warriors need some insurance. Their front office has done a great job of keeping their future draft picks, so getting a package together for Zion Williamson should never be a problem for the Warriors. If they are able to pair up Williamson with the last glimpses of the primes of their superstars, it would be a superteam that would dominate the NBA. They are title favorites by some regard right now, but if the Warriors get Zion, they are in line to continue their success in the future as well.
They are a very healthy organization
Now, the health of an organization is a very vague term, but most NBA fans know what is meant than that is said. For instance, an organization that constantly does bad moves and loses a ton of games every year is usually not considered healthy. On the other hand, an organization without many scandals that remains relevant even through a bad few years is considered healthy. The Warriors have not always been as healthy as they are now, but they are a well-ran team with great ownership, a proactive front office, and a vision for the future.
We, as NBA fans, sometimes underestimate how important the health of the organization can be to a player. For instance, a player like Manu Ginobili could have had a completely different career if he was not part of the San Antonio Spurs, a healthy organization for which he did not mind sacrificing his own ego to play off the bench, where he was best utilized. With the Pelicans, however, it is really tough to say that they are a healthy organization. Their months-long drama with the Anthony Davis trade, followed by this drama where they cannot even seek accountability from their own player just does not bode well for the future. If Zion Williamson can go to a healthy organization, such as the Warriors, it could make him greater than he could have imagined.
Thus, the Warriors should use the abundance of good energy around their situation to get a player that is not necessarily bad or ill-tempered, rather just misguided and stuck in a poorly-ran organization. With him in the squad, they could open up the potential that the Warriors did not even realize they had and could secure themselves a perennial shot at contention, even as their title-winning trio of Curry-Thompson-Green fades into black.
