Much of the early 2025 NBA offseason has surrounded New Orleans Pelicans star and former No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson. The All-Star forward has been battling injuries the last few seasons, but is now fighting recent allegations made against him by a former girlfriend amid trade rumors.
Williamson appeared in just 30 games this season, averaging 24.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 5.3 assists. The Pelicans struggled with a 21-61 record, which has since brought up trade rumors involving the 24-year-old.
Pelicans insider Shamit Dua recently discussed the trade rumors surrounding Williamson. On an episode of In The N.O., Dua gave an idea of the potential return packages teams would offer for the star, amid the allegations brought against him.
“I’ve just been texting random executives across the league,” Dua said. “This is speculation, right? This is not them saying this is what we would do. This is just them guessing, right? I was like this is straight off asking people like would anyone touch Zion with a 10-foot pole?
“And there seems to be this general idea of like you kind of saw it with with like Derrick Rose and Kristaps Porzingis that like there will be teams that do not necessarily care about the reputation provided they have enough general information to know that this is going to get settled out of court and the allegations won’t stick.
Dua went on to include an example of a trade offer from the Miami Heat.
“There will be teams who do not care and but those teams who do not care need to be sufficiently desperate, one and two they’re not going to give you anything of value,” Dua said. “So you’re going to get really bad contracts and likely no picks. But if you do get a pick, it’s a late pick. So an example would be Andrew Wiggins and Duncan Robinson for Zion and some small salary just to kind of make it even.”
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