With New Orleans Pelicans vice president David Griffin stating recently that Zion Williamson ‘will play as soon as he’s ready’, the question became when? Last night, the Pelicans posted a video of Williamson dunking and looking fleet at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.
Here is that video – and it was accompanied by ‘soon’ – in the caption on Instagram.
Zion Williamson is cleared to participate in 5-on-5s tomorrow, per @_Andrew_Lopez 🔥
(🎥 @overtime @PelicansNBA ) pic.twitter.com/qRmJisFeyu
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) January 7, 2020
Then, before the Pelicans game beat reporter Andrew Lopez gave a good synopsis of what will be be ongoing with Williamson on twitter. Equally important, Williamson will participate in a 5 on 5 for the first time at practice on Tuesday. Of course this is a big step up from 3 on 3 with the coaching staff which he performed last week.
Pelicans need a few more practices before he can return. Problem with the schedule now – 5 games in 8 days – is that that practice time is very limited.
The anticipation is that he will play this month – hopefully sooner rather than later. (2/2)
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) January 7, 2020
Additionally, the Pelicans say to Lopez that Williamson’s gait and explosiveness are coming back. The schedule doesn’t help with five games in eight days, but they anticipate that he will play in January. Finally he adds sooner rather than later is what the Pelicans want.
We looked at a date to circle, and January 20th was that date. Therefore, we could be about two weeks from seeing the debut of Zion Williamson for the New Orleans Pelicans. Obviously we will bring out the coverage in full force for that on this blog.
