Pelicans: What recent scans mean for Zion Williamson’s return

Raise your hand if you are getting sick of the word “scans.” Fans of the New Orleans Pelicans and Zion Williamson have been waiting patiently for information from the most recent set of images from his surgically repaired foot. Though there is still no timeline for his return, we finally got what appears to be good news about Zion Williamson’s injury: https://twitter.com/_Andrew_Lopez/status/1460729928756965377 Zion has been medically cleared for contact and is one step closer to full team workouts, which is the final step before he returns to the court.

He’ll get another set of “scans” (argh, I can’t escape it) a week from today and hopefully things will continue to progress. But when is Zion Williamson going to return?

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

As I wrote a few weeks ago, I still wouldn’t expect Zion Williamson to return any time soon. There is no way he is in game shape after only recently being able to run, so I would expect him to still be a few weeks away even if everything is good in the next set of images. I’m sure the Pelicans would love to get him back in there as soon as possible and try to salvage this season, but there is no sense in rushing him back when the Pels are 2-13. We are definitely looking at a December return, and if the images are clean, it could be closer to the beginning of the month depending on how long it takes Zion to get into reasonable game shape. I’d say best-case scenario is that he returns for the December 1st home game against the Mavericks or potentially the following week in a home game against the Nuggets. I’m going to put my money on Zion Williamson returning on December 10th against the Detroit Pistons, as he could easy back in against one of the other young teams in the NBA. Let’s hope that the New Orleans Pelicans can win a few games between now and then so Zion Williamson’s return can make a difference in what has been a disappointing season.