New Orleans Pelicans: New questions that came out of preseason

The New Orleans Pelicans left preseason with more questions than answers.

We were already debating whether the Pelicans had improved, if they had enough shooting and if their defense was going to be better under new Coach Willie Green.

But the inconsistent play and injuries from preseason brought a few new questions into an offseason that has already been fairly tumultuous.

Let’s start with the big one that hangs over everything.

How bad are the injuries to Zion Williamson and Jaxson Hayes?

We went from “Zion will definitely be back for the regular season” to “Zion can’t run yet” pretty quickly, huh?

The Pels have not handled this injury well from a public relations standpoint, as they were first very secretive about Zion’s surgery and recovery and are now being cagey about when he is going to return.

David Griffin is going to be making an announcement soon about the “scans” Zion Williamson had, and I am not going to be shocked if the news is less than good.

There has also been no update on Jaxson Hayes’ injury, so hopefully that will be addressed in the same Q&A with reporters.

I think the New Orleans Pelicans need to approach the season as if Zion Williamson is going to miss some time and prepare for that possibility. This opens a whole slew of questions about the starting lineup, and more importantly, how the Pelicans are going to generate half court offense without their star.

There is another offensive option that we didn’t get to see in the preseason but should be unveiled once the games are real.