New Orleans Pelicans: Will Zion Williamson be back to playing in bursts?

The big news out of the New Orleans Pelicans’ media day was that Zion Williamson had offseason surgery on his foot.

It seems odd that the Pelicans decided to keep this secret for the entire offseason, but obviously they were trying to limit the amount of talk and speculation there was around Zion’s health.

This isn’t the first time Zion Williamson has been injured, nor the first time the Pelicans have been cagey about it, as Zion reportedly had a hamstring injury that forced him to leave the Orlando bubble which was undisclosed by the team.

When Zion returned from his other injuries, he was on a minutes limitation, playing in “bursts” of a few minutes which Zion reportedly hated according to Christian Clark of The Times-Picayune New Orleans Advocate.

So are the bursts going to be back? You might be shocked to find out that David Griffin wouldn’t give a straight answer:

New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson playing in bursts again?

Although David Griffin tried to play it down, Zion Williamson having to miss any portion of the offseason is not ideal.

He can’t take part in full-contract drills and has been spending most of his time in the pool, so it’s safe to safe that he might not be at 100 percent immediately upon his return.

It makes sense that he’ll have to be eased back into things as he was before, which means Zion will be on some kind of minutes limitation. Hopefully they will figure out a way to keep him safe but also happy, as Zion obviously wasn’t a fan of the “burst” plan before.

The Pelicans’ schedule gets brutal in late November and December, which means it is important for them to get out to a strong start, which will now be jeopardized depending on how ready Zion is to play.

The New Orleans Pelicans can’t seem to catch a break and it will be interesting to see how they handle the aftermath of the latest injury to Zion Williamson.