The New Orleans Pelicans completed their preseason without the services of Zion Williamson and it’s possible they will start the regular season that way as well.
The Pelicans were secretive about Williamson’s injury, not revealing it all offseason before dropping the bomb that he’d had surgery on his foot after fracturing it during training way back before Summer League.
Team officials and Zion himself initially claimed that he would be ready for the regular season, and hopefully he will, but count me among the doubtful after hearing some further information about his progress:
Willie Green says Zion Williamson will “get some scans” in the next day or two on his right foot and they’ll proceed from there on what’s next.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) October 11, 2021
Williamson has not started running yet, they are waiting on scans for that.
Has continued to shoot and do some dribbling.
“Williamson has not started running yet” is not something you really want to hear with the regular season starting in just over a week.
New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson’s injury and the schedule
I am hoping that the team and Zion are right and he’ll be back and ready to go for the regular season. But with no real offseason or training camp and still not even running, I find that hard to believe.
If Zion does have to miss some time, it’s better to be at the beginning of the season when the schedule is somewhat easier, as they have some tough stretches starting in November.
The flip side to this is that the New Orleans Pelicans really want to get out to good start with their new-look roster, which is going to be much more difficult if their star is on the bench.
The optimist in me wants to believe Zion Williamson is going to be back, but even if he is, it’s going to take some time before he is ready to play full games and to develop some chemistry with his new teammates who he has yet to play with.
The pessimist in me says this might be worse than they are letting on and that the Pelicans could start this season in a big hole.
The Pelicans’ season starts for real in eight days, so hopefully Zion WIlliamson’s scans will be clean and he can start getting to work to be ready.