NBA Rumors: Warriors Land Zion Williamson In Blockbuster Trade Proposal

The New Orleans Pelicans stubbornly held onto all of their prime potential trade candidates this past summer, though nobody expects that to last through the season.

Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy III, and Herbert Jones have frequently had their names in trade rumors, but all are still in the Big Easy as the season gets underway.

Unless the team makes a miraculous Cinderella run to start the year, they will be a prime team expected to make a big move. 

And the Golden State Warriors are in dire need of making a big splash if they're to give franchise legend Steph Curry a chance to have another significant playoff run. 

To that end, Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report has proposed a blockbuster deal that would send Zion Williamson to the Warriors. It would go down like this: 

Golden State Warriors Receive: 

• Zion Williamson

New Orleans Pelicans Receive: 

• Draymond Green
• Kristaps Porziņģis
• 2027 first-round pick (top 4 protected)

Why the Warriors would want to trade for Zion Williamson

For the Warriors, sure, it's a massive injury risk taking on Williamson. But pairing up Zion with Steph would be a dynamic, unstoppable duo on offense. "At this point in their careers, Zion would represent a massive talent upgrade over Draymond," writes Bailey. "And whatever that swap would cost Golden State defensively (editor's note: a lot), Williamson could offset it on the other end."

Bailey goes on to explain the benefits of how Williamson's game complements Curry's.

"Zion remains one of the most devastating interior scorers of all time... The fact that he does so much of his damage inside the three-point line would make him a dynamic pairing with Curry. Zion has real gravity in the paint. Curry obviously has it from beyond the arc."

Why The Pelicans would do it

The Dubs learned this week that Kristaps Porzingis's health problems might keep him out for the season. They're desperately looking for a team willing to take on his $20M salary, which is essentially an expiring contract. Only $3M of his $20M for next season is guaranteed. 

And Green is also on an expiring deal ($27M). So for the Pels, they'd get a huge wad of cap space next summer to re-make their team for the future. 

Even better for them, they'd finally be setting themselves free from the annual "Will Williamson finally stay healthy?" game they play, and lose, year after year. As Bailey notes, New Orleans has only made the playoffs twice in the seven years since Zion was drafted with so much hoopla as a supposed "generational" player. The Pels were eliminated in the first round in both of those playoff years, and, naturally, Williamson didn't play in either of those series.

He has missed 280 games over those seven years, more than he has played. 

But he's healthy now to start the 2026-27 season, and the Warriors just need him to make it through this year (and one more that he's signed for) to give them a shot at a relatively good playoff run, alongside Curry.