All Signs Currently Point To Zion Williamson Being The Next Star To Hit The NBA's Trade Market Later This Summer

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When it comes to the next big name star player to find himself on the NBA's trade market, most people at this point assume that player is going to be Kevin Durant. It's not exactly a secret that the Suns are a dumpster fire with no positive outlook in terms of their future in sight, so you may as well cash in whatever chips you can in an effort to restock your assets for your next rebuild. If Devin Booker is off the table, then the player who has the most value on the open market would be Durant.

And while that feels more like a "when" situation as opposed to an "if", there are rumblings that KD won't be alone when it comes to big names hitting the market this summer.

After firing David Griffin after 6 seasons, the Pelicans have tapped Joe Dumars with the challenge of fixing their roster and overall standing in the West. Even if you're someone who believes there's actually more than enough talent on the Pelicans roster and they've just had brutal injury luck, at some point, an organization has to pull the plug. Based on the rumors floating around, that's exactly what the Pelicans ownership wants Joe Dumars to do when it comes to Zion Williamson

You know what that means, we're back baby!!

Allen Einstein. Getty Images.

David Griffin was always hesitant to go that route, but now that he's not around and Zion technically isn't a Joe Dumars pick, this is suddenly more possible than ever before.

On the surface, you would think that trading a 24 year old star shouldn't be the toughest thing in the world, but Zion, of course, isn't your typical 24 year old. While it's true that when Zion is healthy and on the floor he's a complete two way monster, the problem is the fact that ya know……he's never on the floor

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So, challenge #1 is going to be trying to find a trade partner that believes in Zion and thinks that maybe everything that's happened with him so far in his NBA career has more to do with the Pelicans than the player. We see examples all the time of guys going to a new situation, and the entire trajectory of their career changes. Perhaps at this point, after years and years of the same bullshit, that's possible for someone like Zion considering the basketball talent is clearly there.

Challenge #2, is partially what makes something like Challenge #1 so difficult. Not only do you have to find a trade partner that believes in Zion, but you also have to find someone who wants to get in on this current deal

In this new CBA world the NBA lives in where cap space and smart extensions are so important, I can't imagine there are a ton of teams looking to be on the hook for this deal. Especially when you consider the players/assets it would even require to trade for Zion in the first place. Paying that much money for a player who might play 30ish games a year is how you destroy your cap situation. Teams are avoiding the 2nd apron like the plague, so using a massive chunk of your space on a player you can't rely on isn't exactly the best course of action for team building in 2025. Especially if we aren't even sure Zion will age gracefully, considering he's already dealing with these injury issues in his early 20s.

That's ultimately the risk. From a basketball standpoint, adding Zion could be a difference-making move for the right team. At the same time, adding him could also potentially bury you for the foreseeable future if he never plays. Perhaps you could make the case that his value has never been lower so it's actually a great time to buy if you feel like his best basketball is ahead of him, and I do think there's some truth to that, given his age. 

A potential landing spot is tough to gauge at this point, given so much can happen between now and July, and I imagine KD's situation will have to be sorted before we see a Zion move. It also makes you wonder if a team like the Knicks now regrets shooting their load early so they could trade for Mikal Bridges when those same assets could have now been used for Zion. If you're a good team looking to make the leap to true contenders, do you push your chips in and take the risk? If you're someone like OKC or SA, is this maybe the type of player you make a God level offer for in terms of your billion picks? I do think how the playoffs shake out these next few months might help create a clearer picture of what exactly Zion's trade market might look like.

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Either way, if this is the end of the Zion Era as a Pelican, it's easily one of the biggest "what ifs" in recent NBA history. Given all the hype that surrounded him entering the draft, how good he immediately was the second he stepped on an NBA court, the Pels don't exactly have a ton to show for it other than wondering what things may have been like had he not been a complete injury disaster. 

I can only imagine how sick that fanbase would be to see him be traded somewhere and then start having multiple 60+ game seasons, but that's how the NBA goes sometimes. All you can do is hope that Joe Dumars gets the best return possible, so my advice would be to do the exact opposite of what we just witnessed Nico Harrison do with Luka. That was terrible.