Zion Williamson may be the first domino to fall after disastrous Pelicans move

The New Orleans Pelicans wasted a little time making big moves to start their offseason. They fired general manager David Griffin and hired NBA legend Joe Dumars. Dumars has plenty of experience as a general manager, with him serving as the Detroit Pistons' GM for 14 seasons with mixed results.

That makes this a controversial move, to say the least, considering Dumars' track record towards the end of his run in Detroit. To his credit, he built the Detroit Pistons teams that dominated the Eastern Conference during the 2000s. They made five straight trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals, and won a championship in 2004.

Despite that, he made several puzzling decisions that hurt their franchise, including passing up Carmelo Anthony to draft Darko Miličić and clearing out major cap space to sign Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to big contracts.

Now the Pelicans are bringing him in to manage their franchise, and that could mark the end of the Zion Williamson era in New Orleans as well.

The New Orleans Pelicans' hiring Joe Dumars could mark the end of the Zion Williamson era.

According to Pelicans insider Shamit Dua, ownership will mandate that Dumars trade Williamson. If true, that would be a major development considering how well Zion played after returning from a hamstring injury this season.

It's not uncommon for a new GM to clean house, and since Dumars didn't draft Zion, he likely doesn't have nearly as much of an attachment to him as Griffin did. If the Pelicans move Zion, then that would be a potential mistake, considering they could still build around him.

While he has missed more than half of his career games, he is still among the most talented players in the NBA. If New Orleans were to strike gold in the NBA draft lottery, landing the first or second pick, they could draft a future All-Star to pair with him for the long term.

Also, moving him this summer will likely mean a worse return for their best player. After all, despite his strong play, teams may still be skeptical that he can stay healthy over the course of a full season.

Holding on to him for at least another year would give him a chance to prove critics wrong and could potentially increase both his value to the team and his trade value as well. Thus, they'd be making a mistake moving him this summer.