Just when Pelicans fans are out, Zion Williamson pulls them back with highlight dunk, huge game

Perhaps wildest part of Zion Williamson's career so far is that, when he's on the floor, he's pretty much lived up to the astronomical hype that he entered the league with. On his career, he's averaged over 24 points per game on over 62 percent true shooting. Combine a bunch of counting stats and advanced statistics and that probably equates to a top 25 player in the NBA.

So we can't blame Pelicans fans for never, ever losing hope about Zion, no matter how much time he misses due to injuries — especially because he does stuff like this every time he comes back.

In 10 games this season, Zion is putting up 21.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game (an increase in boards would be a pretty big development, too) and the Pelicans are 4-6 with him in the lineup. That doesn't sound so inspiring, but they're 7-26 without him.

Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided’s daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with a friend! If you don’t like it, share it with an enemy.

A cloudy path forward for Zion and New Orleans

What's the plan here? Keep Zion, hope for a top three draft pick, and then be a pretty good team when New Orleans' new star plays but Zion doesn't, and a very good team when they both play?

It's not that bad of a plan, but it's also a stressful and inconsistent way to live. Just hoping your team's co-star is healthy enough to play half a season might not be a winning formula.

But trading him likely wouldn't be effective, either; he's such a good player when he's on the court, but he's not a safe enough bet to stay on the court that opposing teams would be willing to part with good players or unprotected picks.

So, trying to pair Zion with Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper might be the answer. If either of those guys are good enough to be a team's cornerstone — I think they both will be — then Zion could, in essence, be a great second option who plays whenever he's healthy enough. That's obviously still not the ideal scenario for this franchise, but things wouldn't be quite as bleak that way. The Pelicans could basically turn into the Philadelphia 76ers, which... actually, on second thought, maybe this isn't the best plan.