4 NBA Trade Landing Spots for Zion Williamson During 2025 Offseason

The 2024-25 NBA campaign will go down as a colossal disappointment for the New Orleans Pelicans.

But maybe not a complete waste. Not with Zion Williamson having stayed just healthy enough to embark on a reputation-repairing run.

While the 24-year-old is still not guaranteed to go every night—he is battling a back injury as we speak—he is hooping often enough and at a high enough level that certain suitors would have "significant interest" if the Pelicans ever made him available for trade, as ESPN's Tim MacMahon told the Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective.

B/R's Eric Pincus added that New Orleans "has opportunistically looked at the trade trade market," meaning those suitors could soon be in luck.

So, who are they? Who might be willing to overlook the enormous risks with Williamson in pursuit of potentially even greater rewards? Four clubs come to the top of mind, so let's explore and explain each situation.

Charlotte Hornets

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The Hornets are about to complete their fifth season with LaMelo Ball, and they've never appeared further from competing at a high level with him.

At this point, they either need to aggressively pursue upgrades around the 23-year-old or consider life without him.

Considering he's the buzziest player Buzz City has seen in ages, the Hornets should try giving this another shot. Adding a North Carolina native in Williamson to the heart of this rebuild would not only electrify this fanbase but also—if everyone stays healthy—get this group into at least the play-in conversation.

Ball's blend of scoring, creation and distributing is rivaled by few others, and still the Hornets have an abysmal offense (29th in efficiency, 30th in true shooting). Few players are better equipped to boost this offense than Williamson, who's averaging a hair under 25 points despite logging fewer than 29 minutes a night.

Ball's passing plus Williamson's finishing feels like a match made in hoops heaven. Sprinkle in the two-way play of Brandon Miller between them, plus whatever Charlotte can find near the top of this summer's draft, and you can already see the outline of a pesky playoff opponent capable of becoming far more.

Detroit Pistons

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This is an exciting time for the Pistons, who are closing in on their first playoff trip since 2019.

It's also at least a little confusing, too, since they have an obvious need for Cade Cunningham's co-star but surely don't want to gut this group given how much it has already grown.

Trading for Williamson could satisfy the front office on both fronts. He'd dazzle as Cunningham's co-star and, provided he stays upright, work his way into more of a 1A-1B partnership than a Batman-Robin type dynamic.

The 2019 No. 1 overall pick also shouldn't deplete Detroit's asset collection, since his injury issues are such that you have to include some kind of "when healthy" caveat into every other sentence about him.

Since Williamson can handle and initiate offense, Detroit would have two high-end, 6'6" shot-creators. Defenses wouldn't know how to approach the twosome, let alone actually contain it. That's triply true if the Pistons recommit to having the kind of spacing that has allowed their offense to breathe this season.

In a perfect world where Williamson stays healthy, he would have the impact of an all-in trade push without an all-in trade price. The Pistons could reasonably expect to challenge for a top-four seed and have designs on climbing even higher.

Miami Heat

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Considering the Heat just spawned a 25-year-old, first-time All-Star in Tyler Herro, it feels like time should be on their side.

In reality, though, they're kind of already against the clock to make something happen with this core. Herro is a six-year veteran. Bam Adebayo turns 28 this summer. The time to win with them as the foundation is right now, particularly with the franchise's prospects for 2026 free agency dimming.

The Jimmy Butler-less Heat seem primed for a shakeup, and president Pat Riley seldom misses an opportunity to chase a distressed asset.

Williamson should easily meet that definition. Even if this run has helped restore some value, he won't cost nearly as much as a player of his caliber normally would. He won't hit even the 40-game mark, which he has failed to clear in four of his six seasons.

The Heat need his offense, though, and they don't have the trade chips to find this kind of scoring punch and finishing prowess elsewhere. They also have to hope (if not believe) their coaching and conditioning program can bring out his best in ways the Pelicans never have.

Portland Trail Blazers

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For better or worse, the Blazers have kept themselves in the play-in race. Could this propel them toward trying to reach larger goals in the near future?

If that's even a consideration, Portland has to explore its options for snagging a star. Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara have emerged as building blocks for the Blazers, but neither would be mistaken for an offensive elite. And that's true of everyone on this roster.

Williamson would change that upon arrival. He could quickly settle in as a go-to scorer and a primary creator, but he isn't so ball-dominant that he'd take too many touches away from Portland's developmental talent.

There would be myriad pick-and-roll combinations for the Williamson-Avdija-Scoot Henderson to explore, and the Blazers' bounciest athletes would shine with Williamson's open-court attacking.

At worst, this would keep Portland in the play-in chase for the foreseeable future, and with all of the youth on this roster, there would be multiple avenues to climbing another tier or two.

Things that are impossible for the Blazers now would potentially become doable with Williamson, assuming good fortune on the medical front, obviously.