The New Orleans Pelicans are reportedly not interested in extending Zion Williamson this offseason.
The New Orleans Pelicans are in the news again on Thursday as NBA insider Brett Siegel did a massive overview of the current landscape for contract extension-eligible players.
Zion Williamson has two years remaining on his deal, but he can receive it this offseason. According to Siegel, that won't be happening any time soon. The current feeling is that Williamson will enter the year without a deal, and he'll have to either earn it from the Pelicans or he can put on a show and eventually cash in during free agency.
There is no real news coming from this report, as most of this was at least assumed, but it does at least suggest that the Pelicans are leaning towards not extending Williamson right now and would need to be convinced in order to give him a new contract. That does decide to bend over backwards to make this "two timelines" approach work look a little bit more confusing.
Deciding on Williamson will always be hard. He's never been good enough to live up to the insane hype around him, but he's still clearly very talented and can
Calling this roster a competitor is being optimistic at best, and two clear centerpieces are waiting to be built around who now may have to come off the bench again.
Joe Dumars does seem intent on giving Williamson and Derik Queen more time to grow together, as he has talked about it a couple of times this offseason, comparing them to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. They've been open to trade offers on Williamson, at least publicly, but have never really taken any of them seriously.
This will be the eighth year in the league for the former No. 1 overall pick. Last season didn't really make the decision easier either way, as he started to finally show a lot of the right things. Teammates raved about him as a leader on the team, and the increase in effort was clear.
Not just effort on the court, but off it as well to stay conditioned and stay healthy. It was easily his best bill of health for a season, but he needs a more consistent track record. That's why this year is so important. It'll likely either be Williamson's last in New Orleans or be the reason why he is here for the foreseeable future.
