Zion Williamson Trade Rumors: Bulls, Suns Interested but New Orleans Won’t Move Him Yet
Zion Williamson trade rumors are back. The Pelicans just drafted Derik Queen, and a frontcourt of Queen and Williamson does not make basketball sense. That is the reality New Orleans has to figure out over the next few months.
The Chicago Bulls are the most-cited team in the speculation. Chicago is desperate for a marketable superstar to build around, and Williamson, when healthy, is one of the five most physically dominant players in the NBA. Adding him would give the Bulls an actual identity and a name that fans in Chicago would recognize.
The Phoenix Suns are the other name being floated. They flamed out in the first round against Oklahoma City last spring, head coach Jordan Ott has publicly said the team needs to generate more shots at the rim, and Williamson would answer that problem overnight.
But here is the thing everyone in the NBA has to acknowledge. Williamson is a health question mark and always will be. He has played 30 games in a season exactly once in his career. He is on the wrong side of 25. His trade value is nowhere near what it would have been three years ago, and no serious contender is going to give up premium assets for a guy who might miss half the season.
The Pelicans know this. That is why New Orleans is not expected to trade Williamson this summer. The internal position is that if he plays well and stays healthy for the first few months of the season, they can revisit the market at the February trade deadline. If he does not play well or gets hurt again, they might have to just eat the contract and move on.
Williamson is still owed massive money over the next few years. His contract has clauses that adjust based on playing time and physical conditioning, but he is still going to make a real dent in whatever cap sheet takes him on. That is another reason the market for him is limited.
The Bulls, if they were serious about him, would have to send back Nikola Vucevic’s contract and some combination of Ayo Dosunmu, Matas Buzelis, and picks. That is not nothing, but it is also not the type of package that gets a rebuild going.
Phoenix has a harder salary situation. They would have to move Bradley Beal’s remaining contract, which is essentially untradable, or work in a third team. That makes a Zion-to-Suns deal much more complicated than the rumor mill suggests.
The realistic outcome is that Williamson starts the season in New Orleans, plays 20 to 25 games, and either forces the Pelicans to move him at the deadline or gets moved next summer. The window for New Orleans to get real value for him is closing every year.
Zion’s talent was supposed to change the NBA. It might still, in flashes, on the right night. But the trade rumors are the new normal, and they are going to keep coming until his career gets sorted out one way or the other.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
