As the 2025-2026 NBA season approaches, so do conversations around Zion Williamson. Zanos has been one of the most dominant players on the court when he suits up. The problem is how often he has not suited up due to dealing with some sort of injury.
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Fortunately, there’s good news on the horizon for the 26-year-old superstar and the Pelicans team that he represents. Zion is apparently healthy and ready to go to war for New Orleans. So much so that his agent is talking to ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins about his path back to the court.
Perk revealed this conversation he had with Bill Duffy (Zion’s agent) on a recent edition of NBA on ESPN. It sounds like Duffy is not only excited about the upcoming season, but also staying on top of his client remaining as healthy as possible.
“He told me that Zion is on the right path,” stated Perk. “And he’s on Zion’s heels like a pair of church socks to make sure he goes in the right direction and do what he needs to do to be available and play high-level basketball.”
Perk: “I talked to Zion’s agent and he told me that Zion is on the right path”
Spears: “From what I’m hearing from Joe (Dumars), he’s been really, really impressed with Zion” pic.twitter.com/HtTayCFNJo
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) July 31, 2025
Fellow analyst Marc Spears seconded Kendrick’s statement by divulging a statement made by Pelicans President of Operations, Joe Dumars. Spears stated that Zion has impressed Dumars based on their interactions at the Summer League.
“It’s not every day in Summer League that you see a GM sitting next to a star player during an entire game. From what I’m hearing from Joe, he’s been really REALLY impressed by Zion,” stated Spears.
This certainly feels like the Pelicans organization trying to control the narrative, but who cares if it’s true? And the truth is that New Orleans is indeed a much better team when Zion is on the court. Spears agrees.
“When Zion plays, I know people are going to say ‘When he plays,’ they win. They are a problem when he plays,” he stated on the same broadcast.
So, how much better is New Orleans with Williamson in the game? Remarkably better. According to StatMuse, the Pelicans’ winning percentage is at 38% without Zanos. That number jumps to 50.8% with him in the game.
And his stats over his first six seasons are tremendous. Zion has averaged 22.5 PPG, 27 PPG, 26 PPG, 22.9 PPG, and 24.6 PPG just last year. However, the more important number is the games he missed, and boy, are there a lot.
In those very same six seasons, the 26-year-old has missed 258 games, which included him sitting for the entire 2021-2022 season. That’s more games than he has played, which is just 214.
Regardless, what Spears said is accurate. Having Williamson on the court instantly catapults the Pelicans into a West Coast contender. And this was a squad that finished No. 8 in the rankings but lost out in the Play-In. With Zion back, they could finish No. 5 or No. 6 in the West easily.
But again, it all depends on one thing. Health. Can this team, Zion specifically, remain healthy? The hope is that he can, but as we’ve seen in the first six campaigns, that’s just not a guarantee.
