Mobile Menu
HEADLINES

Griffin: Williamson Remains Centerpiece Of Pelicans’ Future Plans

February 11th 2025 at 8:12pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Zion Williamson remains the focal point of the Pelicans’ plans, despite his extensive injury history. Executive VP of basketball operations David Griffin said during a press conference on Tuesday that he’ll continue to build his team around the high-scoring big man, The Associated Press’ Brett Martel relays.

“If you take just his body of work this year, what he’s done for us when he’s been healthy, he’s taking steps every day and he’s grown by leaps and bounds, both on the court and off,” Griffin said. “The player he is now is better than he’s ever been.”

Williamson has averaged 23.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists per night in 17 games this season. He has missed 36 games, mainly due to a hamstring injury.

Griffin indicated that Williamson has embraced his role as a team leader. Williamson still has three years left on his maximum-salary contract and Griffin feels like his best years are about to come. Griffin added that some of Williamson’s injuries were “flukish” and “unavoidable.”

“People mature at different rates in the league, and sometimes that maturity looks like a brushfire and sometimes it looks like a forest fire,” Griffin said. “I think he’s reaching forest-fire status now — and that’s exciting.”

Confronted with salary cap issues, Griffin chose to deal his other starting forward, Brandon Ingram, who agreed on Tuesday to a three-year extension with his new team, Toronto.

“We reached a point where financially we weren’t going to be able to keep the group together as we were constructed,” Griffin said.

Here’s more from Griffin’s presser:

  • The Pelicans have won just 12 games, mainly due to injuries. Griffin admits he needs to find more durable players. “We need to get better just in terms of our ability to build a more available roster,” Griffin said. “Obviously, that’s something we’ve failed at to this point.”
  • Along those lines, the Pelicans will look to add size and toughness to the roster, Will Guillory of The Athletic tweets. “We’re one of the worst rebounding teams of the last 15 years in the NBA,” Griffin said. “It doesn’t take a great deal for me to tell you we need to get bigger and more physical. I think that’s fairly obvious. … Our ability to make shots around ball-dominant play creators is important (as well),” he said.
  • When the Pelicans acquired Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk from the Raptors in exchange for Ingram, there was speculation that Brown could be bought out and that Olynyk could be back on the trade market this summer. Griffin suggested on Tuesday that’s not the plan. “This is not viewed as a short-term situation with either player in our minds. And we hope as the season unfolds, they grow to feel the same about us,” Griffin said, per Rod Walker of NOLA.com. Brown told Walker he’d appreciate some stability. “I’ve been on six teams in seven years, so I’m tired of moving,” the veteran swingman said. “So I want to find a home. If this is the place, this is the place.”
  • In case you missed it, Griffin indicated forward Herbert Jones will likely miss the rest of the season due to his shoulder injury. Get the details here.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0
View Comments (22)