The New Orleans Pelicans will not have Zion Williamson back for the upcoming play-in tournament, and it sounds like that will not be changing anytime soon even if they advance.
In an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” Monday, Shams Charania of The Athletic had some worrying information about Williamson’s status going forward. Charania said that while Williamson’s hamstring injury is largely healed, the center’s conditioning is nowhere near where it needs to be for him to play.
“The hamstring might be close to healed or feeling good, but from a conditioning perspective, he has not been able to bridge that gap between his conditioning, his basketball shape, everything that goes into being Zion Williamson,” Charania said. “His conditioning is just not there, and from what I am told he is not even close to getting back on the floor.”
There had been some hope that Williamson might be able to return for the play-in tournament, but those were dashed last week. It is quite worrisome that he is characterized as not even being close to being able to play.
Williamson has been limited to just 114 games since he was drafted in 2019. There have been some unflattering rumors about his diet and conditioning before, so for it becoming an issue again is not what the Pelicans will want to hear.
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