New Orleans Pelicans: When will Zion Williamson return?

The New Orleans Pelicans have had a rough start to the season without star Zion Williamson.

The Pels are still winless and have looked lost on offense without their star, as the team was built around him and without him, the offense just doesn’t go.

On October 14th we were told that Zion Williamson would undergo further scans in two weeks or so according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN:

But we know that the Pelicans have been very cagey about Zion’s injuries in the past, so when they say “no fixed timeline” that could mean just about anything.

New Orleans Pelicans: When will Zion Williamson return from injury?

Let’s say that the Pelicans were being 100 percent forthright about Zion Williamson’s injury and that he will be re-evaluated on that timeline.

That would put his next scan sometime around the end of October, so he is going to miss at least the first seven games.

If those scans came out completely clean and Zion Williamson was cleared to play, the earliest we are going to see him is the beginning of November, but let’s keep in mind that he hasn’t run or played in months, so it’s not like he’s just going to jump right back into full-speed NBA action.

I would imagine he’ll need another few weeks to get himself into game shape, so I cannot picture a scenario where he comes back any earlier than the November 6th game vs. the Warriors and that is the absolute best-case scenario.

It’s more likely that we won’t see him until at least the middle of November, so hopefully he will be back for the Pels’ November 14th matchup against the Grizzlies.

The New Orleans Pelicans are going to have to find a way to win some games with Zion Williamson out, as he is not likely to return any time soon and the Pels cannot get in too deep a hole if they want to make a run once he does.