{"id":110593,"date":"2024-12-04T15:29:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T20:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=110593"},"modified":"2024-12-04T15:29:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T20:29:03","slug":"pelicans-williamson-injury-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/04\/pelicans-williamson-injury-superstar\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans Stand Firm On Intentions for Injury-Plagued Superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Orleans Pelicans continue to live with their\u00a0<\/span>Zion Williamson<\/span><\/a>\u00a0headache as their star remains out for the foreseeable future. The Pelicans are slowly regaining their roster sans Williamson, but they <\/span>remain<\/span> the last-placed team in the\u00a0<\/span>Western Conference<\/span><\/a>\u00a0with a deplorable 4-18 record. The season appears lost, yet the Pelicans organization looks to remain faithful and confident in their injury-plagued superstar.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pelicans Stand Firm On Intentions for Injury-Plagued Superstar<\/h2>\n

New Orleans Pelicans Have ‘No Intention’ of Moving On From Zion Williamson<\/h3>\n

Not long ago, the Pelicans were decimated by injured players\u2014important, critical players, mind you\u2014to where\u00a0<\/span>Brandon Ingram<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was essentially holding down fort solo-style.\u00a0<\/span>CJ McCollum<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Dejounte Murray<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Trey Murphy III<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Herb Jones<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Jose Alvarado<\/span><\/a>, and Zion were all out for a significant period. The team-wide decimation hurdled the Pelicans into an empty shell with only four wins to their name. However, Murray, McCollum, and Murphy have each made their way back into the lineup over the last couple of weeks. It hasn’t helped much, though.\u00a0<\/span>Zion<\/span><\/a>, Alvarado, and Jones remain out. Ingram has missed the previous five games.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a colossal disappointment and a tragically unfortunate one simultaneously due to the talent and skillset New Orleans presently has on its roster. Despite the turmoil, specifically pointed at Williamson’s prolonged absence, the Pelicans appear to be standing firm on their position regarding Williamson and his future with the team.\u00a0<\/span>According to ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania<\/span><\/a>, he isn’t going anywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There are ways where, if the Pelicans were to waive him, they could potentially do that for free,” Charania stated. “However, I don’t believe that’s something that’s on the table right now.\u00a0The Pelicans have no intention of waiving Zion Williamson.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

New Orleans Can’t Afford Another Anthony Davis Circus<\/h3>\n

Over the last couple of years, there has been speculation around the league and the Pelicans organization regarding Zion’s long-term future. Will the team that drafted him move on? Will Zion ever ask out of New Orleans? These are questions that have popped up on the regular. There’s no mistaking Zion’s franchise-changing abilities. Instead, it’s his health and physical makeup that are holding him and the franchise back. Figuring out how to keep Zion on the floor is priority numero uno for the future relevancy of the franchise, avoiding another\u00a0<\/span>Anthony Davis<\/span><\/a>\u00a0situation, which is priority numero uno point two.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Davis and injuries weren’t the issue in the way they are with Zion. Nevertheless, AD’s departure from\u00a0<\/span>New Orleans<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was a poor look for the organization. Losing another high-caliber, incredibly talented player like Williamson by any means would be another blow. One could argue that the organization’s stance on not considering waiving Zion at this time is the right hill to stand on. The Pelicans are slowly returning to health. As Shams pointed out, Ingram could <\/span>be back<\/span>as early as this week. While the team comes back together, Zion and the Pelicans should focus entirely on a plan to get him back on the floor and keep him there.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Orleans Pelicans continue to live with their\u00a0Zion Williamson\u00a0headache as their star remains out for the foreseeable future. The Pelicans are slowly regaining their roster sans Williamson, but they remain the last-placed team in the\u00a0Western Conference\u00a0with a deplorable 4-18 record. The season appears lost, yet the Pelicans organization looks to remain faithful and confident […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":110597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,33],"tags":[240,308,1934,1262,4112,3854,2388,4382,1684],"class_list":["post-110593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-pelicans","tag-anthony-davis","tag-brandon-ingram","tag-cj-mccollum","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-herb-jones","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-shams-charania","tag-trey-murphy-iii","tag-zion-williamson"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110600,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110593\/revisions\/110600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}