Zion Williamson's Injury History Spotlighted by NBA GM: 'Dominant When He Plays'

Zion Williamson hasn't played since Nov. 6 due to a strained left hamstring, continuing a career trend of missing huge chunks of time due to injuries.

"He's dominant when he plays," an NBA general manager told ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Bobby Marks. "But when's the last time you've seen him play?"

The result has been utter calamity for the Pelicans, who at 5-28 are the worst team in the NBA and should be weighing the option of simply conducting a full-blown fire sale and rebuilding from scratch.

The question is how much the team could actually get in return for their core players?

Williamson is on the second year of a five-year $197.2 million contract. He's being paid like a superstar but has the availability of your 50-year-old uncle at the local rec league (though the Pelicans wisely protected themselves in the deal, and Williamson has since failed to hit availability benchmarks, meaning the final three years of his deal are either fully or partially non-guaranteed).

"It's really hard to see anybody paying a ton for him right now, but there are a very limited number of players in the league when healthy who are at or near the franchise-player tier," and Eastern Conference executive told ESPN. "The only way you win at the highest level is to have a guy who can do the type of things he can do if he's healthy. I would probably do something stupid to get him if it were me making decisions."

Brandon Ingram is in the final year of his contract, meaning teams aren't going to offer major assets without some assurances he might be willing to sign an extension. And even then, while Ingram is a very good player, is he worth the max money he'll command?

Regardless, he's the most likely member of the Pelicans' core to be traded this season.

Then there's C.J. McCollum, who is 33 years old. He's under contract in the 2025-26 season for a fairly reasonable $30.6 million, but he's at best a third option on a championship team. Even with an extra year under contract, he's a less attractive trade target than Ingram.

So the Pelicans have some decisions to be made. At this point, however, it's very clear that the team can't move forward with the roster as constructed.