{"id":479960,"date":"2026-01-20T17:51:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T16:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=479960"},"modified":"2026-01-20T17:51:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T16:51:58","slug":"pelicans-say-no-to-trades-but-league-sources-question-zions-untouchable-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/pelicans-say-no-to-trades-but-league-sources-question-zions-untouchable-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans say no to trades, but league sources question Zion\u2019s untouchable status"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Orleans Pelicans<\/span><\/span><\/strong> have reportedly informed rival teams that they are not willing to trade Zion Williamson<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, Herb Jones<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, Trey Murphy III<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, Derik Queen or Jeremiah Fears. However, according to The Athleti<\/a>c<\/em>, league sources are skeptical \u2014 particularly when it comes to Williamson.<\/p>\n

Multiple league insiders have questioned whether Zion is truly untouchable. While still considered a very unlikely scenario, the Washington Wizards<\/span><\/span><\/strong> were mentioned as a potential \u2014 albeit extreme \u2014 possibility.<\/p>\n

Sources indicated that Washington would not part with one of its own future first-round picks. However, one league source speculated that a pick owed to the Wizards \u2014 such as the least favorable among the Houston Rockets<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (top-four protected), Los Angeles Clippers<\/span><\/span><\/strong> and Oklahoma City Thunder<\/span><\/span><\/strong> 2026 first-round picks \u2014 could align with New Orleans\u2019 objectives.<\/p>\n

To be clear, a Wizards\u2013Williamson trade is viewed as an extreme long shot. Still, it was referenced by enough league sources to warrant mention. Even at a relatively low acquisition cost, trading for Williamson would carry significant risks, both in terms of health and potentially team culture.<\/p>\n

That said, one source pointed to Washington\u2019s recent history \u2014 including the trade for Young and last summer\u2019s move for Cam Whitmore \u2014 as evidence that the franchise is willing, under the right circumstances, to gamble on high-upside players whose on-court shortcomings had tested the patience of their previous teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wizards mentioned as extreme long shot in Williamson speculation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":371870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"rumors":[175],"typology":[183],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-479960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","rumors-nba-rumors","typology-rumors"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/02\/New-Orleans-Pelicans.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479960"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=479960"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=479960"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=479960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}