Ryen Russillo had Brian Windhorst on his latest podcast to break down the NBA’s in-season tournament and happenings around the league. Russillo brought up Zion Williamson and his situation with the New Orleans Pelicans after seeing the Los Angeles Lakers eliminate the Pels in Vegas.
After debating what New Orleans should do with Zion, Russillo drew a comparison between the Pelicans’ situation and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ with Karl-Anthony Towns.
I watched Minnesota hold off the Spurs, it was kind of a valiant effort there, and I kinda look at some similarities there (with Zion and the Pelicans). Because my rule, always, with these trades is like, I don’t leave last night’s game going, ‘They have to trade him.’ But I feel like him figuring it out is the wrong side of the bet.
And I hope that’s not the case. Hopefully, (Zion) gets back into shape.
But then you look at Towns with Minnesota, and for a while there, it was like, ‘Wow, they’re probably gonna have to move off of him, but then they do the [Rudy] Gobert trade and the idea that they’re just gonna be bigger than people. And then they get off the D’Angelo Russell. Finally, they bring in a point guard that kinda understands things with [Mike] Conley.
And then Ant takes off. And depending on how it goes for them in the playoffs, we know depending on which day you want to look at the standings, you feel like Minnesota is up there with everybody, even if this looming Jokic thing is in the way of everybody in the West.
Whenever we think about, ‘Oh, they have to get [Towns] out of there, it’s like, ‘Yeah, but whatever we’re getting back from him is not necessarily a solution.’ And maybe the newer version of him, or a figured-out Zion, or a healthy Anthony Davis, that’s still better than anything that would have happened.
Whenever you look at a Minnesota, is this patience paying off for them? Still too early? Or Towns, which I thought he’d be as reluctant as anybody because I think he’s like first-team all-delusional, but him handing those keys over, or Ant just ripping those keys from him, and granted, Ant wasn’t great the other night against San Antonio, he was coming back from that injury from that fall, I just think that there are these lessons in patience.
Where there are other franchises where they might be like, ‘This isn’t working, but if we trade something and it gets even worse, then we’re even more likely to take criticism, and then we don’t even have our jobs anymore.’ There’s a bunch of different motivations at work for when teams do or don’t want to do anything. But I always kinda default to, most of the time, they just don’t do it because they’re always afraid of, like, the return isn’t gonna be better if the guy figures it out somewhere else.
That’s the same thing with [David] Griffin and Zion as well.
“Yes, and I think that’s exactly the correct way to go,” Windhorst agreed. “If I had a talent like Zion, I would absolutely exacerbate myself trying every single thing that I knew.”
Windhorst broke down New Orleans’ Zion situation, highlighting that the Pelicans can’t sign stars because of their market size. Therefore, they must trade and draft players, much like the Timberwolves. That doesn’t mean that the Wolves and Pels can’t be successful, though. The Indiana Pacers built through the draft and trades, have the league’s lowest payroll and made the in-season tournament finals this week.
Still, teams like the Pelicans and Wolves have to operate knowing they won’t get superstars to sign in New Orleans and Minnesota, respectively.
The Pelicans can’t operate like that. They can’t move off Zion and say, ‘We’ll try again in the market. So, you have to do that. And Minnesota’s in the same boat. Minnesota, they made the Gobert trade because they were convinced that Towns and [Anthony] Edwards were good enough that that trade would take them to the next level. It’s taken them a while to figure it out.
They’re headed toward a financial cliff that I’m not sure that they can withstand. I don’t know what’s in everybody’s bank account with their ownership, so I can’t make an assumption. But they’re headed toward a financial cliff that’s a different set of challenges.
But when you can only build through trade and the draft, you make different sets of decisions. New Orleans has had to do that.
The Zion and KAT situations aren’t perfectly analogous. Williamson is the Pelicans’ franchise player, while Edwards is Minnesota’s. But New Orleans may have to move off of Zion to take the next step, while the Timberwolves may have to trade Towns to stay out of cap hell. If the Wolves enter the salary cap’s second apron, they may not have enough flexibility to field a competitive roster. Towns may be the most logical player to move, but doing so is easier said than done.
