League sources say that Pelicans two-time all-star Zion Williamson is ‘not close’ to a return after a major setback in mid February

Zion Williamson has had more than a rough start to his NBA career and injuries have held him back from his true potential. He’s in his fourth season with the Pelicans and has played in just 114 career games. This season he’s appeared in only 29 games and league sources had a brutal injury update for the 22 year old. ESPN insider Brian Windhorst reported that Zion is ‘not close’ to a return after a major setback he suffered in mid February. 

Two months ago the Pelicans were a top two teams in the Western Conference with a 24-14 record. After a loss in their last game to the Kings they are 31-34 so far this season and are in danger of missing the playoffs completely. Injuries to their top players like Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram have derailed the season.

The pelicans have 17 games left in the regular season to try and make the play-in tournament at the worst. Louisiana Sports Betting sites have the Pelicans at (+10000) to win the Finals this season.

Zion Williamson is ‘not close’ to returning, per @WindhorstESPN

“I think his setback was significant”

(h/t @TopBallCoverage ) pic.twitter.com/0HXyTXEE7m

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) March 8, 2023

What does the future hold for Zion Williamson who’s career is being derailed by injuries

The injury history for Zion started right at the beginning of his NBA career. He missed he first three months of his rookie season in  2019-20 and played a total of 24 games that season. A knee injury left him out the first 44 games of his NBA career. Not the ideal start.

His best season as a pro so far came in the 2020-21 season where he played in 61 games and earned his first ever all-star selection. Williamson averaged (27.0) points, (7.2) rebounds, and (3.7) assists per game. However, he would then miss the entire 2021-22 season due to a major foot injury.

Rumors about Williamson’s weight correlating with his injuries were brought up and that caused a stir in the NBA community. Credit to Zion he did come into this season looking much healthier then he did in the past. Despite that he’s only played in 29 games this season and has had a nagging hamstring injury that’s keeping him off the court.

The saying goes, “the best ability is availability”, and that is something that Williamson has not had a lot of in his career. His (25.8) points per game cannot be overlooked, but Williamson has just haj just had some bad injury luck early in his career.