Pelicans and Joe Dumars GO ALL-IN on Zion Williamson but they CANNOT do this one thing

Pelicans and Joe Dumars GO ALL-IN on Zion Williamson but they CANNOT do this one thing

the Pelicans are officially allin on Zion Williamson but one crucial mistake could absolutely derail everything today on Locked on Pelicans the one thing New Orleans must avoid it’s a Thursday episode let’s go you are Locked On Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day welcome to another edition of Locked On Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans and NBA part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube i’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media JakeMadison Nola Jake on Twitter here with you on this Thursday the Pelicans officially all in on Zion Williamson according to Joe Dumar we’ll break down what he said about Zion but one thing that if you’re going to go all in on Zion you absolutely cannot do we’ll get to that in the second part of today’s show and then yep we got a update on Willie Green as well looks like he is staying we’re going to break it all down in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans brought to you by FanDuel right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins and of course thank you for making Lockdown Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day become an everyday join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube and more than that on podcast listens and if you’re an everyday dare let me know in the comments down below so let’s get right into this one joe Dumar has spoken to the media and I’m going to pull these quotes here from wad walker over at nola.com um the times picky and let’s just get right into it they’re building around Zion they’re not waving him it doesn’t sound like they plan to trade him and then I’ll explain what these quotes kind of really mean here so quote “I’ve had really good conversations with Zion.” Joe Dumar said “We’ve had lunch dinner watched playoff games together we’ve done it all i’ve had some real honest conversations with him some real direct and honest conversations we’re going forward with Zion he’s going to continue to be a focal point here as we go forward i sent him to the lottery for a reason i wanted him to start focusing on the responsibilities of being the best player here in the focal point there are some responsibilities that come with that go represent your organization don’t get much more clear than that right like they’re not trading Zion they are building around Zion in relation to the recent allegations around Zion Weaves and Joe Dumar said they take those allegations seriously and he’s been advised not to comment on that gail Benson made a comment the other day that was quote “You know lawsuits are lawsuits you really can’t you know I mean people can sue you for anything there’s no reason you can be innocent or not it’s just something that people do unfortunately.” End quote they’re they’re clearly saying showing you how they feel about these allegations against Zion Williamson right now that probably can give you some insight there again I don’t want to spend much time on that stuff but it doesn’t sound like that is impacting the Pelicans whatsoever so they’re building around Zion going forward look if you want to be competitive next year this is absolutely the move to do right and truthfully if you kind of look at it the Pelicans are in a no- lose situation when it comes to this I think uh around him right now which is funny because my show the other day was like he’s put them in a no- win situation i also think that’s true but in terms of onc court and managing the franchise they’re they’re okay here when it comes to it look building around Zion makes sense you know he had an incredible net rating with the team last year they had a their net rating was 11.7 with him on the court they were 8.2 points per 100 possessions better on offense with Zion and they were 3.1 um po uh 3.1 points per 100 possessions there we go better on defense gives you a net rating of 11.3 here you know that extrapolates out to about 24 additional wins from where they were they won 21 games last year you add another 24 wins on that if Zion were to have played the whole season puts you at about 45 wins right that’s kind of your like if Zion plays the whole season your your floor is above 40 wins it’s not an exact number like that and I did some more extrapolating out with net rating and it correlates to a number of wins and things like that but basically like Zion gives you minimum 40 wins kind of going off of the way he played this past season 40 wins you know that’s what he can almost guarantee your team is going to do now that’s pretty good for just one player doing that right if Herb Jones plays the whole season if Trey Murphy is healthy to start the year if Brandon Ingram doesn’t miss all of the time that he missed right like you look at that and you wonder how good this team could have been de Jonte Murray as well you know CJ missed a bunch of time there’s enough talent here to feel good about the team going forward and clearly the Pelicans do based off of Joe Dumar’s comments right zion Williamson when he plays and that’s the key to this whole thing when he plays will help you win a whole lot of basketball games so here’s why they’re look in a in a no- lose situation you know one of the reasons why also they’re going to keep him right there there’s no market for Zion Williamson I think out there right now i don’t think teams are actively trying to trade for him or anything like that if you could get a really good offer for him I think they might actually take that but that’s not the case right the team also doesn’t want to rebuild right and if you were to trade him away you would be a worse team you know and it makes you less marketable it’s just you know are you relevant do people care if Zion Williamson’s not there or not playing so when you look at it in terms of his values at an all-time low trading him now or later doesn’t matter right holding on to him is probably the best move the value can really only go up and that leads to one of two things right if he plays well that’s a gamecher for the Pelicans and all of a sudden you start looking at the franchise and their future and their trajectory completely different if he plays and you’re going to be good and be a playoff team you’re going to feel great about Zion Williamson and building around him going forward and if he doesn’t you can just pivot right if you trade him now or at the deadline is anything going to change nope nothing like that the only thing that’s different is you just can’t wave him and even then you should probably just try and trade him even if it’s for like expiring salary or something like that right and when you look at the impact that Zion has well yeah that also means you’re not going to you know just give up on him even if maybe you kind of want to he’s It’s like a drug it’s tough to quit here and so that’s kind of where the Pelicans stand with it look if if this season doesn’t get off to the start that you want you know for whatever reason you can always pivot at the deadline and become sellers real as simple as that nothing needs to be done right now you may as well evaluate it for a little bit longer given how good it could potentially be here in New Orleans with Zion Williamson so the Pelicans are making Zion Williamson the focal point going forward they’re building around Zion at least for one year let’s say there’s also one thing they under no circumstances should do at all and that’s offer Zion Williamson an extension he’s about to be eligible for one i’ll explain why that is the one thing they absolutely cannot do that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans is brought to you by FanDuel America’s number one sports book the NBA Finals 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get $200 in bonus bets make every moment more with FanDuel the official sports betting partner of the NBA and thank you for making Lockdown Pelicans your first listen today and every day we’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and become an everydayer that means you listen Monday through Friday to the Locked on Pelicans podcast there we go and if you’re an everydayer let me know in the comments down below do you like this decision to build around Zion Williamson do you think this is the wrong move do you think they should just wave him let me know what you think for your second listen today check out the Locked on NBA Big Board show nba draft expert Raphael Barlo reacts to every workout interview and rumor leading up to the NBA draft find Locked on NBA Big Board on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast they are an invaluable tool and we’ll get back into more draft stuff and trading around in the draft that’s in tomorrow’s episode of Locked On Pelicans you’re not going to want to miss that one at all so the Pelicans are building around Zion Williamson and you know whether they truly want to do that or not maybe this is just kind of PR lip service and there you should do that right given how low his value is sure right publicly back him do all of the right things commit to him in a sense right but under no circumstances under no circumstances should the Pelicans give him any sort of extension on his current deal he is going to be extension eligible once we hit the new league year of July 1 no no no no no no i’m going to be adamant about this one here build around him this year try and win with him this year maybe even keep him for a couple of more years absolutely no extension at all at all and here’s why the way his current contract is set up the weirdness of it with the partial guarantees then voided years and all of that and then it can re- guarantee but also you know ungarantee and all of that stuff you know kind of the lasting legacy of David Griffin here is the pelicans like like pull ca pull cord in case of emergency it’s your emergency shoot something like that right it’s your emergency exit essentially so right now going let’s let’s let’s focus on next season right so next league new year only about 7.9 million of his contract is guaranteed you could wave him by July 15th and only pay that and then you’re just out from under the rest of the deal next year he’s set to make 39 a.5 then it’s 42.16 then 44.8 in the final year of the deal in 2027 2028 and again the way guarantees work is not that his salary will get lower basically if he’s on the team past a certain date he’s getting every penny of that contract whether he plays a game or not and that’s why I’ve always thought you know his contract and the fact that they could wave him is you know like a little bit overdone when people spend a lot of time talking about it because that’s the only way it would happen it’s not like well he only played 20 games so he gets you know 25% of his contract or something like that no that’s not what how it works so you know for Zion you’re going to keep him so he’s going to get his 39.446 39.5 million next season right but after that you have outs look if he doesn’t play next year you know we hope it’ll happen you can just keep him on that roster whole year and then you know maybe miss his games whatever it is right doesn’t hit the thresholds to re- guarantee the contract you can just wave him in the off season and just be like you know what these final two years like we’re we’re done give Joe Dumar a year to make the decision and figure out what he wants to do here you know it’s again it’s it’s pull core i don’t know what’s the phrase in case of break glass that’s what it is break glass in case of emergency i can’t believe it took me that long to to hit it here right that’s your break glass in case of emergency your emergency exit you know if it doesn’t work out next year cool you just wave him you’re going to be bad you’ll get a good lottery pick and then boom done and you can move on from him but here’s the thing you know again back him publicly do all the things to show you’re committed to Zion Williamson but do not do not give him an extension because if you give him an extension it guarantees the rest of his current contract so if you give him an extension this off season and then he doesn’t play at all you can’t then just wave him it won’t work like that it will guarantee the full contract the remaining years that he has left pelicans cannot do that given that look it’s still a risk we’ve been here before where we said this year is going to be different and it hasn’t been that different while things have trended better I’ll admit that you still eventually just need to look at the results and banking on things to really be different in year seven is probably not the smartest move we can hope i hope but I don’t see that coming right you know when Joe Dumar says “I’ve had really good conversations with Zion we’ve had lunch dinner watched playoff games together we’ve done it all and we’ve had some real honest conversations with him some real direct and honest conversations you know do do you think David Griffin didn’t have real direct and honest conversations with Zion Williamson he was Zion was close with Theresa Witherspoon do you think Terresa Witherspoon didn’t have real direct and honest and tough conversations with Zion Williamson in those conversations do you think Zion Williamson was ever like “Yeah no I’m not going to try that hard or do any of this stuff.” Right look they’ve had real direct honest conversations and Zion showed up this past off season out of shape it’s just a fact you could see it in those couple of games in the beginning before he got hurt it wasn’t good that’s how it’s been now so if Joe Dumar has that conversation with him and Zion Williams and doesn’t want to get waved and lose that money what what do you think he’s gonna say what would anyone say in that situation right so I’m I’m skeptical till I see it look I’m hopeful it will happen i mean that but everything that’s kind of being said now like we we’ve heard this before we’ve been here before it’s exhausting at least to me maybe that’s cuz I do a show five days a week about it right now look maybe he connects with with Joe Dumar differently he easily could i’m not doubting that that is a possibility but there have been multiple people who have tried to get through let’s say to Zion Williamson and it hasn’t worked maybe Joe Dumar is the man with the magic touch and that would make hiring him worthwhile just for that i mean it but again I’m going to be skeptical and that’s not anything to do with Joe Dumar that has more to do with Zion Williamson than anything else so I’m skeptical of this right we’ve heard this before we’ve seen Zion be like I’m in the best shape in the offseason all and then like he isn’t now admittedly he looked different he played different this past season he was trying more on defense than we’ve ever seen before he made an effort to improve his rebounding those are big those are like hustle things right those are effort type of things that he wasn’t doing before and he got better at them admittedly his defensive rebounding rate was by far the highest of his career last season that’s an encouraging sign to me so there is that right like that that is not nothing when it comes down to it the steal and block percentage were the highest of his career you know his usage rate was even the highest of his career in terms of number of possessions that he’s using that’s effort that takes a toll on your body it tires you out and he was still doing all of that so there’s reasons to be optimistic and positive about it but everything’s good right now because you’re not playing games there’s no adversity or anything like that that the team has hit and that’s what I’ve seen this team really struggle with is when things get tough when you go on a three-game losing streak whether you know when you’re in the middle of the season and everyone’s exhausted this team has not responded to that kind of adversity well zion has not responded to adversity particularly well there’s no adversity right now i mean maybe there is you know in terms of his personal life and stuff like that the offc court stuff so you know I take that back but you get the point that I’m trying to make let’s see this a little bit later it’s easy to say all these things right now but he’s going to just have to show it it’s really as simple as that and it’s a little bit of wait and see and because it’s wait and see do not under any circumstances give Zion Williamson an extension because it takes away your emergency exit should you need it now Joe Dumar wasn’t done talking in the interview he had with Rod Walker of nola.com the Times Pikyune willie Green staying this is a gamble this is a bet and I’ll tell you what that bet is that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans and thank you for making Lockdown Pelicans your first listen today and every day we’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and become an everydayer listen Monday through Friday to the Locked On Pelicans podcast and let me know if you’re an Everydayer down below do you agree with the decision on Zion Williamson do you think the team should give him an extension do you agree with me that they should not give him an extension let me know what you think and let me know what you think about head coach Willie Green because look Willie Green is staying we’ve kind of already known this that he was going to be staying but it’s kind of official now i don’t think you you know for players under you know people under contract right like I I laugh at this let me read you the quote then I’ll tell you with like what’s what’s kind of going on here right so Willie Green is staying quote “It’s hard for me Joe Dumar to come in here and say “Here’s how I assessed Willie last year.” Dumar said “I wasn’t here all I can do is move forward and guide and create and lead and put expectations on what we need to do here to be successful and only then can I judge Willie Green or anyone else.” I was pleased with what I heard i’m looking forward to going forward and working with Willie to push us to success you’ve got to set the bar and that’s what we’re going to do.” End quote so Willie Green is safe now I find it kind of funny that like guys under contract he’s kind of your head coach till you say he’s not the head coach so coming in and being like I’m keeping him and he’s he’s responding to a question so it’s a little bit different right it’s not like the Pelicans put out a statement being like “We’re not firing Willie Green when it’s like well why do you need to do that when he’s under contract right?” Just kind of the whole situation makes me laugh a little bit here but he’s asked a question and he answered that and I think that’s an honest answer from Joe Dumar right he wasn’t around last year he didn’t see it you can watch it from afar but that’s not the same as being in the building and so he came in he did his factf finding his talking and it seems like he’s liked everything that he’s heard and wanted to try and go forward with Willie Green and then he’ll judge him on the expectations that Joe Dumars is setting and not on anybody else’s expectations including the fans is basically what he’s saying here that’s valid in my opinion joe Dumar has every right to be able to come in and do that with the franchise that he is leading now so Willie Green is really going to be judged on this season and look this is a bet this is a bet on Willie Green this is a bet that the recent struggles for this team have been due to injury and look when I went over those impact numbers from Zion Williamson and when you look at how many injuries this team has dealt with to key people mainly Zion but also Brandon Ingram C.J mccullum and others over the past not just year but a couple of years right that’s what’s holding them back more than anything else in my opinion look Willie Green has his faults i would probably personally make a change there but he’s not the number one two probably or even third reason why this team has not reached their potential and what they’re capable of doing isn’t this false look the team two years ago that won 49 games I don’t think they won just on talent i think that’s a a a just a throwaway thing and that’s not true because then you lose on talent too right and if your talent’s not playing then you’re losing so thus it’s not Willie Green’s fault you get into weird logic with that you know but that team definitely didn’t reach its potential and that is a coaching thing at times and you know it’s a number of other things at times too but that’s part of it right so this is a bet on Willie Green that we just haven’t seen the best of him yet and that with a healthy roster he you know whatever that roster looks like you would expect there’s going to be more changes here with a healthy roster Willie Green can come in and really deliver in a way that we have not seen this team do before i don’t know that’s kind of an exciting thing in my opinion about what they could look like what they could do and how this team could play so I I truthfully hope that that’s going to be the case that you know this is someone who’s going to come in and be like “Look at what I can do when I got my guys playing.” You can put in an offensive system but if Zion doesn’t play that offensive system falls apart they even tried to build the system without Zion and it didn’t really work it shouldn’t work you should build around your best players and if they don’t play you just tough it out as much as you can so this is what this is this is a bet on Willie Green that you know he’s a good coach and that this is someone that can lead you to a number of victories here it might not be the case right but as we kind of just went over with Zion Williams and and things doing this for one more year with Zion makes sense given where his value is and things like that and if you decide to pull the rip cord break glass in case of emergency at the trade deadline or in a year look at that point you can fire Willie Green you can move on from Willie Green and go in a different direction you know who your head coach is this year if Zion’s not playing and you need to get a get out from under him essentially right move him off of the team your head coach don’t matter right it’s that’s what I’m trying to say here it it comes down to health that’s going to be the number one thing for this team and this team’s success or not do you have the health to be able to do it and if you do great if you don’t it’s not going to end up mattering in the slightest so they have this opportunity to do the evaluation that they need to do and we look we’ll see if it works or not i I actually don’t know i really don’t know what to expect at least right now when it comes to it from this Pelicans team this season because look we don’t know what the rest of the roster is going to look like just yet but as of right now you know two of the key pieces are set willie Green is staying Zion Williamson is staying you know barring some unforeseen circumstances here but there will be other changes we’ll see we talked about it in yesterday’s show we’ll see what ends up happening with James Burggo we’ll you know see how they look to remake the roster joe Dumar said “This is a good draft they’re going to get a good player at seven.” I agree very much with that so we at least we at least have a more clarity in my opinion of what the team is looking to do what they’re looking to accomplish they’re trying to win next year they’re not going to go through a they’re at least not going to start a rebuild right now and yeah that kind of makes sense for the players that they have and for how this organization just wants to operate in the first place when it comes to everything but at least we kind of know where the starting point is and that means we can I don’t know talk about the things that are appropriate to that going forward right so that’s that’s I think a very very useful bit of information to know and again you can pull the cord on all of this in a year as long as you do not under any circumstances extend Zion Williamson’s contract don’t do that so coming up tomorrow’s show I’m going to we’re looking at the draft i’m talking about not the seventh pick i’m going to look at trading down trading back in the draft so moving the seventh pick maybe getting multiple picks maybe trading back up into the first even after drafting someone at seven there’s a few guys that I really think they should look at for that and I think it’s easier to make that happen in this draft than you might think we’ll even look at trying to trade up in this draft and what that would look like and the guys that we would be targeting or I think they should be targeting i’ve got a couple in mind if you can guess them down below that I think are really intriguing and guys that you want to go and make moves for so that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked On Pelicans as always I’m your host Jake Madison Nola Jake on Twitter this is the Lockdown Pelicans podcast part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube and I’ll see y’all tomorrow

New Orleans Pelicans double down on Zion Williamson. Is this the right move for their future?

Joe Dumars confirms the Pelicans’ commitment to building around Zion, sparking debate about the team’s strategy. Host Jake Madison analyzes Zion’s impact, citing impressive on-court statistics and potential wins added. The discussion covers Willie Green’s retention as head coach and the risks of offering Zion a contract extension.

Tune in for an in-depth look at the Pelicans’ pivotal decisions and their implications for the upcoming season.

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