{"id":26361,"date":"2019-10-18T13:53:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=26361"},"modified":"2019-10-18T13:53:37","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:53:37","slug":"zion-williamson-to-miss-a-period-of-weeks-to-start-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2019\/10\/18\/zion-williamson-to-miss-a-period-of-weeks-to-start-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Zion Williamson to Miss a &#8220;Period of Weeks&#8221; to Start the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rookie\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willizi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zion Williamson<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has avoided a severe right knee injury and is expected to miss a period of weeks to start the regular season, according to ESPN&#8217;s Adrian Wojnarowski.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A severe injury has been ruled out for Zion Williamson\u2019s right knee, but he is expected to miss period of weeks to start regular season, league sources tell ESPN. Pels are clearly treating injury with an abundance of caution but there\u2019s no shortage of confidence on full recovery.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1185218470096592896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 18, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><strong>Zion Williamson Out a Few Weeks<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/new-orleans-pelicans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> traveled to the Big Apple, on Friday, to play their final preseason game against the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/new-york-knicks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> New York Knicks<\/a>. Williamson did not travel and stayed back in New Orleans to receive further testing.<\/p>\n<p>The New Orleans Pelicans are taking a cautious approach. Williamson missed some of the Summer League when he injured his left knee. He played eight minutes before the team took him out for precautionary measures. While at Duke, Williamson blew out his shoe and went on to miss the following six games. The team is calling this injury &#8216;right knee soreness.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The Pelicans did not give a timetable for his return.<\/p>\n<p>This injury comes on the heels of an astounding preseason for the number one pick out of Duke. Williamson averaged 23.3 points, 6.5 rebounds while shooting 71.4 percent from the field. The Pelicans will most likely turn to rookie <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mellini01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nicolo Melli<\/a><\/strong>, the 28-year-old Italian who started his professional career overseas in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>Williamson is the favorite to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. His odds are -150, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.<\/p>\n<p>This injury is not only a blow to the Pelicans, its a blow to the NBA. The NBA has put an emphasis on this team. They are one of the opening night games against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/toronto-raptors\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Toronto Raptors<\/a>. They are also slated to play in a Christmas game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/nba-teams\/denver-nuggets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Denver Nuggets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"qXvn1nKtQQpGe_-eI8I6Aw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1177963800\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'qXvn1nKtQQpGe_-eI8I6Aw',sig:'SCndPQWZ0dg9UTZSng3LF8F26XbuUwon6aiRu93ckaY=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1177963800',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rookie\u00a0Zion Williamson\u00a0has avoided a severe right knee injury and is expected to miss a period of weeks to start the regular season, according to ESPN&#8217;s Adrian Wojnarowski. A severe injury has been ruled out for Zion Williamson\u2019s right knee, but he is expected to miss period of weeks to start regular season, league sources tell [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3193,"featured_media":26367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[220,1684],"class_list":["post-26361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-pelicans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-zion-williamson"],"modified_by":"Tyler Marling","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26361","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\/3193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}