Should the Charlotte Hornets Look at Zion Williamson as a Potential Trade Target?

Of the eight NBA teams who won a playoff series this season, each had at least one or more starter who was top-40 in the league this season in drives per game.

Of the four NBA teams who reached the conference finals this season, each had at least one starter in the top-20, and three of the four teams (OKC, NYK, CLE) had players in the top-ten.

To put it simply, the importance of having players who consistently drive to the rim cannot be understated.

Despite finishing in the top-ten during the 2025-26 season in drives per game, the Charlotte Hornets only had two players who drove to the rim ten or more times per game. Coby White led the team in this statistic with 11.5 per night, and LaMelo Ball was the only other Hornet with 10 or more (10.9).

The other four Hornets starters finished with 25.4 drives per game, where Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller led the way with 8.4 each, Miles Bridges had 7.8, and Moussa Diabaté drove just 0.8 times a night.

For reference, those same starters shot the three ball on average 33.2 times a night, meaning Charlotte's offense relied heavily on jump-shots, rather than putting pressure on the rim. Though the Hornets finished in the top-ten in drives per game as a team, much of that burden fell on just two players, in turn leaving the offense without the downhill pressure that is a common trait amongst the most successful teams in the league.

Although there were nights where the Hornets would simply outshoot their opponents from three heavily, there will be more nights come playoff time where they need to find the ability to get to the basket for easy buckets rather than try to find and force up a three-pointer.

In a league where every conference finalist featured elite downhill creators, the Hornets' lack of any true secondary drivers remains as arguably the biggest obstacle between them and postseason success.

The ideal solution for Charlotte is a player that has the ability to pressure the rim, not take the ball out of Ball's hands, and possess both the size and athleticism to finish through contact when defenses collapse on Charlotte's outside creators. It's significantly easier said than done to find that player, especially when many of the league's highest-volume drivers (such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham, and Jaylen Brown) are already franchise cornerstones.

Looking at the players in the top-fifty in drives, it's difficult to find one that could realistically be acquired, and also make an impact as a starter. Some names stick out as potential bench pieces, such as Russell Westbrook or Tre Jones, but one stands out as a potential game-changer:

Zion Williamson.

Entering his eighth season in the NBA, Zion has played in 276 games while missing 278, meaning he has been unavailable for essentially half of his career.

Outside of the 2021-22 season, where he missed the entire year, Williamson has also developed a troubling pattern: a season where he plays in 60 or more games is typically followed by one where he misses 50 or more games.

When Zion touches the court, there has almost never been a question as to whether or not he is one of the better talents in the sport. The current concern with him, which has stuck with the former number one pick since his Duke days, has been the ability to get on the floor.

With a Hornets team who already has injury concerns in regards to two of their stars (LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller), adding a third who has even more injury concerns is viewed in a negative light by some. While there is no debate that a core of Ball, Miller, Knueppel, and Williamson can be playoff caliber, there is a debate as to whether or not that core can play at least 25 games together.

The reason that Williamson is able to generate as much interest as he does despite his disappointing injury history is quite simple: when he is on the court, there are very few players who have the ability to do what he does.

Zion finished the season with the fourteenth most drives per game amongst NBA players. He was one of eight players who took seven or more shots on those drives, including the likes of Jaylen Brown, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Maxey, Ja Morant, Cade Cunningham, and Cooper Flagg. Of that list, Williamson finished second in field goal percentage, with the league MVP being the only player who shot better.

When Zion drives, defenses are forced to collapse, which not only creates opportunites for him, but also for the players around him. While he was tied for second-to-last on that list of players, Williamson has shown growth in his playmaking abilites, gathering around two assists on his 13.7 drives per night.

That also accounts for the fact that Williamson was playing for a Pelicans team who ranked 27th in the NBA in three-pointers made, where in Charltte he would be playing with a Hornets team who was first in the league in that statistic.

Zion does have a clear weakness on the court, which is his jumpshot. The Pelicans star took four total threes over his 60 games last season, a number which has been rapidly dropping ever since his second season in the league. Replacing Miles Bridges with a player like Williamson has a clear drop on the perimeter; where Bridges is a respectable three-point shooter, Zion's is nonexistent.

That being said, the Pelicans are still a better team on both sides of the ball when Williamson plays. They are 1.2 points/per 100 possessions better on offense, 1.2 points/per 100 better on defense, overall marking them 2.4 points/per 100 better than their opponent with Williamson on versus when he is off the floor.

The Pelicans also see an increase in their true-shooting percentage with him on, in large parts due to the fact that Zion is 70th in the NBA ODPM, and 60th in 2Y RAPM. To put it all together: New Orlenas is a better team with Zion Williamson.

Then comes the question of what would it cost to acquire the former All-Star?

Zion is entering the second to last season of a five year, $197 million contract that the Pelicans inked him to during the 2022 offseason. He's slated to earn $42.2 million this upcoming season, and $44.9 million in the final season of his deal.

He would immediately become the second-highest paid player for the Hornets, potentially the third if/when Brandon Miller signs his rookie-scale extension. Williamson is eligible for a three year, $177 million extension this offseason, a contract that seems unlikely to be given to him at this time.

The North Carolina native could be sent home for a package based around Miles Bridges, Liam McNeeley, Tidjane Salaün, and future draft capital.

At this point, the Hornets front office likely feels they are a piece or two away from being contenders in the Eastern Conference, and Williamson could be that piece. He returns home at just 25 years old, and would play a pivotal role in fliping not just the narrative around the Hornets franchise, but the narrative around himself since joining the NBA.

As for the Pelicans, the incentive here is simple: New Orleans turns the page on the rebuild that started in 2019 after landing the number one pick, and starts to build a new team with Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears at the forefront. While they receive calls on their other star in Trey Murphy, dealing Williamson for McNeeley and Salaün allows them to receive two former first-round picks, as well as receive future firsts to kickstart a new rebuild.

It remains to be seen as to whether or not that this will be the offseason that Jeff Peterson uses the draft capital he has accumulated, but no matter what he decides, the Hornets' future is extremely bright.

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