Zion Williamson's consistent play triggers significant contract escalations for the New Orleans Pelicans.
The New Orleans Pelicans are happy to finally see one of their stars stay consistently healthy, but it does mean some big paydays they are going to have to dish out next season.
Friday night's loss to the Houston Rockets marked 51 games played for Zion Williamson. That's the third-biggest number of his career, and it is a milestone that brings his contract guarantees from $16.9 million to $25.3 million for 2026.
Should Williamson make it through 10 of the final 14 games, those guarantees will bump up even further to around $33.74 million. His whole contract for the year is worth $42.17 million, so having 80% of that guaranteed would be a massive relief for the forward.
These protections for the team are in place for a good reason. He's played in just 61 games twice so far in six years. The rest of his career, outside this season, consisted of 30 games or fewer. While his on-court production was worth the big contract, it felt like the team was throwing money away for someone who never played.
Had he had yet another frustrating health year, they would have been able to move on and cut him with no financial obligations or traded him with little risk to the next team.
Now, they don't get that benefit, but it's the scenario the team would rather have had anyway. Williamson has proven that he can still get through a season mostly healthy.
There were a couple of hiccups early, but he played a career-high 35 straight games, and he's only missed one since the middle of December.
Williamson showed up to media day before the season, certainly looking like he's in better shape, but there was plenty of skepticism around whether it would actually stick this year. Now, almost through the campaign, it certainly looks better.
The team's game plan being less shifted toward just him playing hero ball and allowing him to grow off-ball, taking some stress away, has also likely played a large part.
There will still be a contingent of the fanbase that wants to move on and will not buy that things are actually changing, but the Pelicans have at least some argument to still have faith in the 25-year-old former first overall pick.