NBA Analyst believes Zion Williamson will not be on Pelicans' roster come Thursday

Besides an injury-riddled 2022-23 regular season, Zion Williamson is also facing serious online backlash at the moment.

He recently announced his girlfriend was pregnant with the couple's first baby. This was followed by former adult star Moriah Mills claiming she was cheated on by the Pelicans star, and has been relentlessly calling him out on Twitter.

The Ringer's Bill Simmons provided an interesting update regarding Williamson's future with the Pelicans. He said:

“The Zion thing is a real, real, real, subplot..I had somebody tell me yesterday—that I trust—that he will not be on [the Pelicans] by Thursday.”

During the 2022-23 season, Zion Williamson averaged 26.0 points per game (60.8% shooting, including 36.8% from 3-point range) and 7.0 rebounds. However, even with the impressive numbers, Williamson was only available for 29 games.

After missing the whole 2021-22 regular season, Williamson was expected to come back healthier with a much better diet in check. Zion Williamson was able to lose 7-9 pounds during last year's offseason. But with his injury-prone nature, it did not take long until the setbacks started to kick in.

While this information from Bill Simmons has not come to fruition yet and may all just boil down to speculation, the Pelicans cannot afford to trade away Williamson for a bunch of scraps.

Trading away your franchise player, such as Zion Williamson, can hamper a team's legitimate chances of competing at a high level. In the possible scenario that the New Orleans Pelicans are in fact looking for possible trade packages available for the forward, it needs to be of proper quality.

As free agency draws nearer by the day, it will be interesting to see what the Pelicans do before the start of next season.

ESPN's Kendrick Perkins does not trust Zion Williamson

On ESPN's First Take, Kendrick Perkins did not mince words as he spoke about the Pelicans' future with Williamson.

"It was time for the Pelicans to move on from Zion Williamson...You can't trust him. The reason the Pelicans are trying to move on from him is because of food and his off the court issues. When is he going to get in shape? Sometimes he comes into training camp he is in shape and he's not able to sustain that."

During the 2020-21 regular season, Williamson was able to play 61 games, the most he has played in his young NBA career. He logged 33.2 mpg during that season while averaging 27.0 ppg (61.1% shooting) and 7.2 rpg.