How much longer can they justify keeping around a player that only plays a third of an NBA season? Zion Williamson has been ruled out for multiple more weeks after aggravating the hamstring injury he sustained in early January, which has caused the Pelicans to plumet down the West standings.
Remember when the Pelicans were legit #1 seed contenders in the Western Conference? Yeah, that seems like a lifetime ago now that the West teams used the trade deadline to shoot themselves up with star-power steroids.
Anyway, the collapse of the New Orleans Pelicans as #1 seed contenders to now barely clinging onto their playoffs lives as they languish in the 7th seed is solely down to Zion Williamson’s hamstring injury. The Pelicans are simply a different team when Williamson is in and when he’s out of the lineup, which is to be expected for any team that loses its superstar.
Yet, the way the Pelicans have fallen from being 23-13 on New Years Day (Zion Williamson was injured Jan. 2 vs. 76ers) to now being 30-23 with less than two months to go in the regular season is really concerning. I know losing Williamson is a huge deal as he was averaging 26.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 4.6 APG, and 1.1 SPG, but the rest of the roster is good enough on paper (key words here) to go .500 in the 23 or so games that Williamson has been out.
C.J. McCollum (21.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 5.9 APG, 1.0 SPG), Brandon Ingrahm (22.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.9 APG), Jonas Valančiūnas (14.4 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 1.7 APG), and Trey Murphy III (12.9 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 1.3 APG) should all be good enough players to collectively carry a team to a 4th-6th place finish in any of the conferences, let alone the weakened West prior to the trade deadline.
Yes, Ingrahm has also been plagued with injuries this season, but for this core group of players to oversee a 7-16 record in Zion’s absence should be extremely worrying for the Pelicans front office. All of the players I’ve mentioned have been a part of the Pelicans organization for at least the last two seasons (with Ingram and Williamson now in their fourth season with the team), yet they’ve never made it out of the 1st round of the playoffs.
Okay, two years might be too small of a sample size for anyone to make a determination on the future winning prospects of this team, but the frequent injuries that Williamson and Ingram have suffered is a huge problem as they’ve cost the Pelicans from making the 2nd round and conference finals. The Pelicans will never be able to secure high seedings in the West if Williamson and Ingram can only play 40-60 games a season, which would negate all of the moves this front office has made to support Williamson.
I’m not saying that it’s time to trade Williamson as that would still be a little too premature, but Ingram’s role in the Bayou should seriously be questioned by the Pelicans front office. Sure, he’s yet to play more than 62 games for the organization, but he constantly averages over 20 PPG and is only 25 years old. In other words, he’s got tremendous trade value.
He easily has the most trade value out of any of Zion’s supporting cast, and the Pelicans possession of the Lakers draft haul (from the Anthony Davis trade) makes a package involving him and the picks an intriguing prospect for any bottom-feeder team that owns a healthy, productive superstar.
I know if I was in the Pelicans front office, I would make that move next season.
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