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The New Orleans Pelicans have one of the strongest looking trios in the league with Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum, but health has stood in the way of all three stars playing alongside one another. With the 2023 NBA Draft just a week away, rumors surrounding Williamson's future have been emerging and even more fuel to this fire was added on Thursday.
Williamson met with David Griffin, the Pelicans' executive vice president of basketball operations, on Thursday afternoon at the New Orleans Saints headquarters, according to Nick Underhill. This was apparently just a regular offseason meeting between the Pelicans star and Griffin, as Underhill states Zion also met with owner Gayle Benson.
More news involving the Pelicans also surfaced on Thursday, as The Athletic's Shams Charania reported that the organization is parting ways with assistant coach Teresa Weatherspoon. As Charania states, Weatherspoon has been with the team since 2020 and had developed a strong relationship with players like Williamson.
Who knows if this meeting Zion had with Griffin is connected to Weatherspoon's departure from New Orleans, but the timing of everything is extremely interesting.
Williamson, who has been in the news quite a bit recently, has played in just 29 games since the conclusion of the 2020-21 season. Availability is a big problem for the All-Star forward, which is one of the reasons why the Pelicans may be open to the idea of trading him while they can.
The 2019 first overall pick is set to enter the first year of a five-year, $194 million extension he agreed to with the Pelicans last year. This is a lot of money for New Orleans to pay a player that has played in just 37 percent of his team's total games since entering the league and the Pelicans are continuing to have doubts on whether or not he can be the face of their franchise for years to come as a result.
Trading Zion is a very real possibility for the Pelicans as the NBA Draft inches closer and over the course of the next few days, there will likely be many more storylines emerging between Williamson and the organization.
