It’s hard to sugarcoat Zion Williamson’s season for the New Orleans Pelicans: It has been a disaster.
What started off as a “minor” foot injury has turned into an ongoing saga that has no end in sight.
It hasn’t been helped by Zion Williamson’s camp, nor the Pelicans’ front office, who have mostly been silent throughout this whole process, leaving fans and national media to speculate and offer up their own theories.
It now looks like Zion may have to have a second surgery, which would certainly remove any chance of him playing this season.
Things can’t get much worse for Zion Williamson right now and the Pelicans are going to have to be careful that his disaster of a season doesn’t bleed into the next one.
Zion Williamson and the Pelicans’ playoff chances
While the Pels are still hanging around the play-in tournament, any real chance they had of making the playoffs ended when Zion got hurt.
He has now played in just 85 games while missing 117 and counting, which is obviously a concern for everyone involved.
The Pels have played well at times even without him, which is one of the most frustrating parts of this, as it seems like they have a team that would complement Zion perfectly if he were just on the floor.
Brandon Ingram has stepped up, rookie Herb Jones has been a revelation and New Orleans has gotten solid contributions from Jonas Valanciunas and most-recently the red-hot CJ McCollum.
This is a playoff team with Zion, which makes his absence even more painful.
And what effect is it having on him?
The effect on Zion Williamson
Trying to work through a lingering injury is tough for any athlete, so I am sure this season has not been fun for Zion Williamson, who has to watch his team play without him, knowing he would make a difference.
Zion has had to endure endless jokes on social media, and I know these famous athletes are supposed to be mentally tough, but it has to be hard for a 21-year-old to watch other alleged adults making fat jokes at his expense.
I don’t care who you are, that type of abuse can’t be great for the confidence and I think that people forget that these guys are human beings and that this one happens to be 21 years old.
Zion hasn’t helped himself much during this whole thing, as he’s mostly been absent from the team and hasn’t spoken much about his injury.
I don’t think he or the team has handled this well from a PR perspective and it has probably led to even more social media abuse.
Hopefully Zion is plotting his revenge right now and will get the last laugh on all of the keyboard warriors. But I do worry about the guy’s mental health during all of this, as this whole thing is now dragging into another offseason and possibly the next season.
Will Zion Williamson have a second surgery?
If Zion Williamson has to have another surgery on his foot, which has been widely reported as a possibility, the focus shifts from him coming back this season to him being ready for the next one.
It would be bad enough to have one lost season, so Zion Williamson has to do whatever it takes to be 100 percent healthy for next season.
This is all happening as Zion enters his extension year hoping to get a max deal, which may end up being one of the most complicated in the NBA, as the Pelicans will have to protect themselves with some performance-based incentives and maybe even team options at the end of the deal.
The Pels have no choice but to try and extend Zion, but they have to have some trepidation about offering a huge five-year max deal to a guy who has barely played. This will be similar to Philly’s extension with Embiid, who was coming off multiple surgeries.
This isn’t how anyone wanted this season to go, but Zion and the Pels have to make sure that it doesn’t affect next season as well.