Joe Dumars joined the New Orleans Pelicans last week as their executive vice president of basketball operations.
On Tuesday, he made his first public appearance in the role in his introductory news conference. One of his first items of business was to address Zion Williamson, the former No. 1 overall pick whose Pelicans career has been plagued by injuries.
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There was a report last week that Dumars was hired with a mandate to trade Williamson. Dumars denied on Tuesday that he has any such mandate.
“I read that last week,” Dumars said of the reported mandate, per The Athletic’s Will Guillory. “If I did, nobody told me.”
The report came from Pelicans insider Shamit Dua, who wrote on social media on April 14 that Pelicans “ownership will mandate Dumars to keep [head coach] Willie Green and trade Zion.”
Green was present at Dumars’ news conference, which suggests that his job is safe. As for whether Dumars has a mandate from ownership to trade Williamson? He certainly wouldn’t say so without a deal in place, if then, even. This remains a situation to watch play out.
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Williamson did speak about his established relationship with Williamson, which he says stems from his role in the NBA’s league office as the executive vice president and head of basketball operations. Dumars worked in that role from 2022-25 and was the league’s public face in disciplinary matters.
“Well, I’ll say this. At the league office, I’ve had to talk to Zion a few times,” Dumars said, with a laugh. “So I do have a relationship with Zion that started in my role at the league office. I won’t go into my conversations there.
“But we’ve talked since then. I’ve talked to Zion since I became EVP here. And we had exceptional conversations on the phone.”
So is Zion on the trade block?
When healthy, Williamson has flashed the upside that made him the No. 1 overall pick out of Duke in 2019. But “when healthy” is a significant qualifier.
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The Pelicans have played 472 regular-season games since drafting Williamson. Williamson has played in 214 of them, or roughly 45%.
Will Zion Williamson play another game for the Pelicans? (Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images)
(Derick E. Hingle via Getty Images)
He’s played in more than 30 games in a single season just twice (61 in 2020-21; 70 in 2023-24) in the six seasons since he’s been drafted. He played in 30 of 82 games this past season as the Pelicans finished with the second-worst record in the West (21-61) during a campaign that was wrecked by injuries to most of their core players.
At that point, it doesn’t matter what Williamson does when he’s on the court. This is a poor return on a No. 1 draft pick who’s playing on a five-year, $197 million contract and is perpetually surrounded by concerns about his conditioning.
If ownership is fed up and ready to move on, few would be surprised. But it wasn’t Dumars’ job to relay that message on Tuesday, if so.
This news was originally published on this post .
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