Zion Williamson's Contract Set To Become Fully Guaranteed For The 2025-26 Season
Contractual Nuggets and More
Zion Williamson’s contract has been the topic of discussion since the details were made public. The Pelicans were afforded a number of protections over the duration of the deal, but Williamson retained the ability to guarantee his money through various avenues.
Based on language in Williamson’s contract, if the Pelicans did not request waivers on or by July 15, 2025, 100% of the Base Compensation would be protected.
League sources indicate Williamson’s salary will become fully guaranteed for the 2025-26 Season.
Beyond Next Season
As of today, the subsequent 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons are fully non-guaranteed. Williamson can earn back money through the following avenues.
20% if Player satisfies the Weigh-In Criteria during the 2025-26 Season;
40% if Player satisfies the 41 Games Played Criteria during the 2025-26 Season;
20% if Player satisfies the 51 Games Played Criteria during the 2025-26 Season; and
20% if Player satisfies the 61 Games Played Criteria during the 2025-26 Season:
Similarly, if waivers are not requested on or before July 15, 2026, Williamson’s salary for the 2026-27 season will be fully guaranteed. At this point the same criteria above would apply for Williamson to earn the guarantees for 2027-28, including the waiver request date of July 15, 2027.
Weigh In Criteria
Williamson has a unique “Weigh In” Criteria in his contract, which is used to determine a portion of his guarantees. This past season, Williamson successfully met the criteria and 20% of his salary became guaranteed for the 2025-26 season. This was roughly $7.9M.
The “Weigh In” criteria works as follows.
During each season, Williamson will have to participate in monthly weigh-ins on the first of each month in the regular season. This will be from October 1 to April 1. During these weigh-ins, Williamson will be measured for Body Weight and Body Fat Percentage. If the sum of these two numbers is below 295, then Williamson will pass.
Williamson fails if he exceeds 295 on two consecutive weigh in dates.
Betting On Williamson
Joe Dumars and the Pelicans have explicitly and implicitly committed to Zion Williamson. Dumars made recent public comments on Zion as the face of the franchise moving forward, and the organization doubled down on this belief by trading away their 2026 draft pick. If Williamson is healthy for the majority of the season, this will indeed serve as a good bet. Through Williamson’s career, the Pelicans are 109-105 in games Williamson plays.
Current Vegas over unders for the Pelicans are set at 31.5 wins. The Pelicans have been a historically poor performing team with regards to these win totals.
Now I typically do not put a ton of stock in Vegas projections, but these are a useful tool to establish a baseline expectation for a team. Consider this as free consulting. If internal models or expectations differ significantly from the Vegas projection, any organization should be trying to determine why there is a gap.
Lastly, I think since the Pelicans are betting on Zion so heavily and counting on him being available, they might as well push some more chips in and make the roster around him as strong as possible. Any playoff push will require 65+ games from Williamson. If that is the baseline expectation, I think it’s prudent not to waste such a rare season from such a good player. The Pelicans might as well triple down and take advantage of their own expectations. With a stronger roster and a healthy Zion, they may very well push for home court advantage in the playoffs. Because we all know if Zion is not healthy, none of this will matter.