WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 16: Zion Williamson #1 of the New Orleans Pelicans dribbles the ball against the Washington Wizards in the second half at Capital One Arena on April 16, 2021 in Washington, DC. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Zion Williamson continues to be a question for the New Orleans Pelicans, with his rehabilitation on a broken foot taking its time. The Pelicans should not expect to have the former No.1 NBA Draft pick ready for the start of the upcoming season and it’s unclear as to when they might.
Earlier this week, head coach Willie Green confirmed Williamson hasn’t begun running or participating in team activities as he recovers from a broken right foot he sustained during the offseason.
The Pels are going into the season under lots of pressure as they are expected to at least make it to the playoffs. Given that Zion won’t take part in the team’s opener vs. the Philadelphia 76ers, they aren’t favored by Bookies.com as it pertains to this game, with Philly tipped to win. Should they fail to make it to the playoffs, it’s likely that the future with Zion as the franchise player will be bleak. The consequences could reverberate around the front office as well.
This isn’t new to New Orleans and fans are pretty used to the disappointment. They were unable to make it work with Anthony Davis, who has since moved to pastures new and has an NBA championship to show for it. Of course, no one is to be blamed for Zion’s unavailability – not even Zion.
“He’ll have some scans in a day or so. We’ll know more after that,” Green said on Monday, per The Athletic. “He’s still doing his cardio work. He’s still doing his conditioning. He can do a little on the floor. Hopefully, we can progress soon after that.”
News of the injury didn’t seep out until media day late last month when the team’s vice president of basketball operations David Griffin announced the player had undergone surgery to repair the fracture months ago. Griffin seemed confident Zion was recovering well enough and would be ready to suit up for the opener against the Sixers on October 20.
“We met yesterday as a group … and we established a timeline for his return to play,” he intimated. “His timeline should get him back on the court in time for (the) regular season — that would be our hope and our view. We’re very optimistic about what that looks like. Unfortunately, that’s going to be taken as a big negative for all of you. It’s really not for us because we’ve been dealing with it all offseason.”
That’s clearly not going to happen as the player is yet to run and is still unable to take part in drills. Should he be involved by some miracle, his minutes won’t be all that significant.
This is also not far off from what was coming from the Pelicans ahead of the player’s rookie season.
Williamson was dealing with a torn meniscus then. The prognosis wasn’t very discouraging either.
“We put out a timeline of 6-8 weeks. Knowing Zion and the work rate he has, he’s going to be pushing us to play a lot sooner than that,” Griffin said prior to the 2019/20 season. “Sometimes, our job is to protect guys from themselves. We’ll see how he goes through the process. All the indications are very positive.”
It turned out that Zion wasn’t able to make his debut until three months later, plus he was put through several hoops before being cleared to play. It would be unreasonable to expect him to play competitive basketball by next week.
The team isn’t being exactly transparent when it comes to Zion Williamson so fans could be forgiven for being a little skeptical. Why they feel the need to be as mysterious as they’ve been over the player’s surgeries is unknown and, so far, it’s only managed to increase speculation over how much Zion will be able to play next season. He has already missed 59 games in two seasons since getting drafted and that number is very likely to increase in his third.
That he’s suffered three serious injuries on the right side of his body in the last three years – counting that infamous shoe ripping incident – is quite worrying. Adversely, Zion has always come from injury looking like his old self and there’s little doubt that will be the case this time around.
There’s hope that the Pels could do what they set out to do despite the circumstances surrounding Zion.
“That’s just how the NBA is. Your guys are going to be out sometimes,” rookie Trey Murphy III says. “You’ve got to play with what you’ve got. It’s like a next-man-up mentality. But once (Zion and Ingram) come back, we’ll be a different team.”