New Orleans Pelicans: 3 Things to Watch vs. the Memphis Grizzlies

Will the New Orleans Pelicans unleash Zion Williamson?

What to do with Zion?

A lot has been made about Zion’s lack of playing time, as the Pelicans are being super cautious with their young superstar to avoid any soft tissue injuries as he tries to get back into playing shape.

After playing 15 minutes in game one against Utah, Zion played just 14 against the Clippers and looked out of synch.

He was getting to the rim but couldn’t finish and at one point tweaked his ankle after stepping on a defender’s foot and came up limping.

Zion didn’t play at all in the second half, which is strange considering one of the goals was to get him time to ramp up his conditioning.

It’s possible they just didn’t want to risk him in a game that was already over, but there has to be some concern about the way Zion has moved so far.

This begs the question of whether they should be playing him at all. If Zion is not 100% and can’t play more than 15 minutes, then he might be doing more harm than good at this point, as the Pelicans have had a hard time finding a rhythm with these wonky rotations where Zion leaves the game after three minutes.

Zion has made it clear that he wants to play more, and the Pelicans either need to accommodate that, or consider shutting him down until he is ready for more minutes.

No one wants this of course, but the Pelicans have to be smarter with how they use Zion. There is no sense in risking the long-term health of your franchise player if he can’t contribute to winning basketball.

Hopefully Zion will be unleashed and we’ll see more of the player from the first 19 games he played, when he was dominating.