{"id":135824,"date":"2025-04-22T18:08:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T22:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135824"},"modified":"2025-04-22T18:08:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T22:08:02","slug":"pelicans-joe-dumars-zion-williamson-trade-mandate-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/22\/pelicans-joe-dumars-zion-williamson-trade-mandate-rumors\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans Head Honcho Ices Trade Mandate Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Contrary to recent reports that painted a much bleaker picture of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willizi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zion Williamson<\/a>&#8216;s future with the New Orleans Pelicans, freshly minted franchise head honcho Joe Dumars has not <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/15\/best-trade-destinations-pelicans-zion-williamson\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">been given a mandate<\/a> to trade the former No. 1 pick.<\/p>\n<h2>Pelicans&#8217; Joe Dumars Ices Zion Williamson Trade Mandate Rumors<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;I read that last week that I have a mandate,&#8221; Dumars responds, laughing. &#8220;If I have, no one has called me and told me that. Like, no, really. Absolutely zero.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;I read that last week that I have a mandate. If I have, no one has called and told me that&#8230; She said &#8220;Joe I would like to know what its like to win an NBA title&#8221; That was as close to an edict as you will get&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Joe Dumars on mandates from ownership <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iDpJ7qIUKN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/iDpJ7qIUKN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PelsFilmRoom\/status\/1914746516528374062?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When me and (Gayle) Benson talked, she really just said what she said here. She said, &#8216;Joe, I would really love to know what it feels like to win an NBA title.&#8217; That was it. That was as close to an edict as you would get.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Given Williamson&#8217;s history of injuries, weight control issues, and off-court incidents, his position with Pelicans may not be secure. As recently as last December, there was speculation that the team <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/16\/pelicans-zion-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">was open to moving<\/a> the two-time All-Star. That was with a different front office regime though.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I intend to&#8230; get to know people first. Because I don&#8217;t know the culture inside the building,&#8221; Dumars says, candidly. &#8220;&#8230;I know some of the people. I know Willie (Green)&#8230; I&#8217;ve been knowing Willie forever. Great man. But Willie and I haven&#8217;t even sat down and talked yet&#8230; Just because yesterday was my first day here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>&#8216;Go Time&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p>Dumars might be willing to offer Williamson a grace period. After all, building upon the pre-existing structure instead of removing a keystone could save the team a lot of time and heartache. Furthermore, Williamson&#8217;s trade value is likely <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/22\/2025-nba-offseason-pelicans-master-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">as low as it&#8217;s ever been<\/a>, or close to it. For as gifted as he is, he&#8217;s only scratched the surface of his potential.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, that&#8217;s because he hasn&#8217;t been focused enough off the court <em>or<\/em> able to stay on the court.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll say this, at the league office, I&#8217;ve had to talk to Zion a few times,&#8221; Dumars chides. &#8220;So, I do have a relationship with Zion that started in my role with the league office. I won&#8217;t go into those conversations there but we&#8217;ve talked since then.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Joe Dumars: At the league office I have had to talk to Zion a few times&#8230; I talked to Zion since I became EVP here and we had exceptional conversations&#8230; I called every player and talked to each one individually&#8230; I let em know &#8220;lets go, its time here in New Orleans&#8221; <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6BYp14mzI5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/6BYp14mzI5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PelsFilmRoom\/status\/1914748011894235476?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve talked to Zion since I became (Executive Vice President) here and we had exceptional conversations on the phone. Actually, I&#8217;ve talked to every player&#8230; I&#8217;ve called every player and talked to each one of them individually. So, yeah I tried to reach out and touch these guys and let them know, &#8216;Let&#8217;s go. It&#8217;s time. It&#8217;s time here in New Orleans.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The ball may not quite be in Williamson&#8217;s court. However, he&#8217;s seemingly in a probationary period that will determine his destiny. That being said, if he continues on the path he&#8217;s currently on, it&#8217;s hard to see him lasting much longer in the Big Easy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not loud. I don&#8217;t think you have to be loud. I don&#8217;t think you have to be obnoxious and arrogant and all of that. But I think people see that you stand, and you don&#8217;t move, and you don&#8217;t compromise what&#8217;s what. Like you don&#8217;t compromise on the standard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;You dont compromise the standard&#8230; You can&#8217;t get me to move off high standards. I can say it with a smile but I am not going to move off high standards. If you cant live in that space, it&#8217;s probably not for you here&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Joe Dumars on his leadership style <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Y9Dt2rtJnR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Y9Dt2rtJnR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pelicans Film Room (@PelsFilmRoom) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PelsFilmRoom\/status\/1914753121655419163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That won&#8217;t change with me. You can&#8217;t get me to move off of high standards. You know, I can say it with a smile, but I&#8217;m not going to move off of high standards. So, if you can&#8217;t live in that space, it&#8217;s probably not for you here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contrary to recent reports that painted a much bleaker picture of Zion Williamson&#8216;s future with the New Orleans Pelicans, freshly minted franchise head honcho Joe Dumars has not been given a mandate to trade the former No. 1 pick. Pelicans&#8217; Joe Dumars Ices Zion Williamson Trade Mandate Rumors &#8220;I read that last week that I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":135828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1608,62,3,4721],"tags":[2242,4557,4774,1684],"class_list":["post-135824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pelicans","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-joe-dumars","tag-nba-offseason","tag-rumors","tag-zion-williamson"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135829,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135824\/revisions\/135829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}