This season can’t get much worse for Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans.
After finally getting some good news that Zion had been cleared to practice at full speed and that his return was imminent, we got more bad news yesterday.
Zion Williamson is experiencing soreness in his foot and his return has been delayed.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) December 2, 2021
Williamson did not practice today. The soreness has persisted. No re-imaging has been scheduled at this time.
Williamson will be dialed back before ramping back up next week.
Zion Williamson will not be walking through that door anytime soon, and the Pelicans have struggled without him.
This all started on media day, when Zion Williamson and David Griffin revealed that Zion had secret surgery sometime in the offseason before Summer League.
Since then it’s been one scan after another, each one revealing that Zion Williamson was perpetually two weeks away from being two weeks away. Then two weeks passed and more images were taken, rinse and repeat.
We are now at the point where I wouldn’t be shocked if Zion Williamson didn’t play at all, as it’s hard to buy that any setback is minor. It’s still early in the season but the clock is ticking with each game.
Should the New Orleans Pelicans just shut Zion Williamson down?
There is still a lot of time left in the season, and the Pelicans have one the easiest remaining schedules, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they could salvage something if Zion ever came back, hopefully this is just a minor thing and he’ll return within a week or two.
But it has to be frustrating for his teammates and coach, who have the specter of his return hovering over them.
The Pelicans also have to be concerned about Zion’s long-term future, as he has missed a ton of games already in his young career and hasn’t shown that he can stay healthy.
Zion still hasn’t practiced 5-on-5 and has already had a setback. If this proves to be more than a minor problem it might be back to the two-week cycle. Unless the Pelicans start winning, the season could be out of hand by then, so there will be less pressure to bring him back until he is 100 percent ready to play. This is why I wouldn’t be shocked if we don’t see much of Zion.
There is not much we can do but laugh at this point, as the basketball Gods just keep playing cruel tricks on the New Orleans Pelicans.
For now we’ll just have to wait for more updates, but don’t hold your breath and don’t expect to see Zion Williamson any time soon.