The New Orleans Pelicans have quickly slipped to the bottom of the Western Conference standings this season, and it has been almost entirely due to injuries. Nearly every quality player in the Pelicans’ rotation, save for Brandon Ingram (who has only missed one game), has missed significant time and forced New Orleans to mix and match far too often.
The losses have piled up as a result. Recently, the Pelicans have been missing star forward Zion Williamson due to a hamstring injury. When the injury originally occurred, the thought was that Williamson would only miss four-to-six weeks despite his indefinite timeline.
However, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Williams may be out for even longer than that, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.
“I’m told Zion Williamson is not close to a return,” Charania said. “He’s still a ways away. Sources tell me he has received multiple treatments on that hamstring strain. That’s become a chronic issue for him over the last few years. It’s typically a four-to-six week injury with the grade level from what I’m told, but the Pelicans are bracing for him it could go longer than that mark. … zThey are still going to be without Zion Williamson for a considerable amount of time.”
This is certainly a major blow for the Pelicans, who need Williamson’s presence on the inside. New Orleans doesn’t have a reliable center outside of rookie Yves Missi, and Williamson was one of the main pieces who was expected to pick up the slack due to that lack of size.
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Williamson’s injury is far from the only ailment that the Pelicans are dealing with at the moment. Wing Trey Murphy III recently returned from an injury, but the Pelicans are still playing without CJ McCollum, Herb Jones and Dejounte Murray.
As a result, the Pelicans are just 4-12 on the season and currently have the second-worst record in the Western Conference. Only the Utah Jazz, who did not come into this season with playoff expectations, are below them in the standings. With the hole that they’re already in, the Pelicans will have a lot of work to do to battle back into playoff contention if and when Williamson is able to return.
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