The answer to the Pelicans Zion Williamson dilemma is right under their noses

The 2024-25 season will ultimately go down as a disappointing year for the New Orleans Pelicans. They will likely miss the playoffs, were forced to trade Brandon Ingram after failing to agree to an extension, and worse yet, Dejounte Murray tore his Achilles.

As a result, he will likely miss the remainder of this season and possibly most of next season while former Pelicans lottery pick Dyson Daniels has emerged after being traded for Murray.
There haven't been a lot of positives for the Pelicans, but fans are at least getting a chance to see Zion Williamson put up big numbers after missing significant time this season due to injury.

Since returning to the lineup in December, Zion has appeared in 13 games, averaging 25.5 points and 7.1 rebounds and shooting a blistering 60.6% from the field. More impressive is the fact that he had done that in just 26.5 minutes per game while on a minutes restriction.

That has reminded both fans and critics of his potential and has quieted calls for the Pelicans to consider trading him. When he's been healthy, Zion has been a dominant player who can efficiently put points on the board. He even just recently made history, becoming the third-fastest player to score 5,000 points.

Despite injuries, Zion Williamson's potential is hard for the New Orleans Pelicans to ignore.

While Zion is the third fastest player to reach 5,000 points, that is in terms of career games and not age. He has missed more than half of his career games, and had he been healthy for most of his career thus far, he would be on pace to put up truly impressive numbers. He still can, but he will have to take better care of his body, hopefully limiting the amount of time he is out of the lineup.

At this point, it's anyone's guess whether that is still possible, but the Pelicans are likely willing to give him more time to prove himself as their franchise player.

One positive from the Pelicans awful season is that they could end up with a top five pick. That would allow the Pelicans to take a dual-track approach. The first being that they try and retool around Zion by potentially pairing him with a top prospect who can grow into a second option and giving New Orleans a chance to compete in the next few seasons.

The other would be to develop whoever they draft and see how Zion fares next season. If he's able to continue to play well and stay healthy, then they can keep him; if he can't, then they could trade him and try to rebuild around whoever they draft in the summer. The perfect scenario would be the Pelicans ending up with the number one pick and selecting Cooper Flagg to play alongside Zion.

With 26 games left this season, they can afford to have Zion play as much as possible to evaluate how he fits into the team's future. However, he is quickly reminding fans of how good he can be.