After latest scandal, Pelicans reportedly would rather trade out injury-plagued Zion Williamson than Brandon Ingram

Ever since Zion Williamson suffered a new injury on January 1, he’s been on the news headlines for the wrong reasons. Such potential has felt wasted, as he promised all throughtout the last half of regular season he would be back to help the Pelicans fight for a place in the playoffs, but never recovered. 

In the last couple of days he’s gone viral on social media after his girlfriend’s announcement of them having a baby girl on the way turned sour when adult film actress Moriah Mills posted that she’d been having sexual relations with him the week before.

This situation has made the Pelicans’ future even more unclear as they head into the summer with many more questions than answers. For example, is Zion the player they need to suceed next campaign?

After coming off a disappointing season in which they even missed out on the Play-In Tournament, New Orleans have claimed the No. 14 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. According to sources, they are looking to grab a top-three pick but are yet to decide what trading package they should offer in return.

This Wednesday, NBA insider Brian Windhorst made an appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up” and noted that opponent executives are monitoring the situation behind Williamson, as the Pelicans are beginning to consider the possibility of using him as trade bait for a bigger fish.

“The Pelicans have had some cursory discussions from what I’ve been told,” Windhorst said. “There haven’t been any offers made necessarily yet, but it makes you really not take too far of a leap to wonder… and the league is certainly wondering if the Pelicans are going to make for the first time truly Zion Williamson available ahead of next week’s draft.”

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, New Orleans is out to acquire top prospect Scoot Henderson and would need the former first-overall pick in a trade to complete the deal.

As it is expected that Henderson is set to land in Charlotte, the Louisiana club may have to “look hard internally” at packaging Williamson in a pre-draft deal, Charania assured on “FanDuel TV”.

Another NBA insider claims that the Pelicans would rather trade Zion first than Brandon Ingram

Prestigious reporter Marc Stein had a lot to share on his mind about the possibility of New Orleans sticking with Williamson or looking for a new superstar.

“I heard this week from one well-placed observer who is convinced that the Pelicans would indeed consider dealing Williamson away if it meant they could draft Henderson, pointing to a rising level of exasperation within the organization regarding Williamson’s ongoing availability issues and overall approach,” he wrote on his latest newsletter. “My read, at this juncture, is that the Pelicans are less inclined to consider trading Brandon Ingram in the same scenario.”

The real problem is that Ingram has also suffered many injuries in the past, as he’s only played more than 62 matches once in his career and it was during his first year as a professional. After four campaigns in Louisiana, Brandon’s played 62, 61, 55 and 45 contests per season.

As for Williamson, we are yet to understand if he is finally fit to return to court or if he’s still undergoing rehabilitation.