New Orleans Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin says he expects rookie Zion Williamson to join the team in practice by Wednesday.
Williamson returned to Orlando on Friday night after leaving the NBA bubble for eight days because of a family emergency:
“In theory, his quarantine would end Tuesday afternoon-ish,” Griffin said on Monday, via Malika Andrews of ESPN.
“The problem is he has to test and get the results before they release him. Literally any player on our roster who went 13 days without doing any physical activity, it isn't going to be a given that we would just cut them loose in that next game. Particularly a player that generates as much torque as he does. So we will see where he's at.”
It's unclear if Williamson will be ready for the first game of the restart against the Utah Jazz on July 30.
Williamson appeared in 19 games for the Pelicans before the 2019-20 season was suspended in March. The lefty averaged 23.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game in those 19 appearances, and the Pelicans went 10-9 with Williamson in the lineup.
New Orleans is in 10th place in the Western Conference standings. To make the 2020 playoffs, the Pelicans have to perform well during their eight seeding games and hope that the Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings don't succeed.
Once the seeding games start, the Pelicans will need Jrue Holiday, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, JJ Redick, Josh Hart and Williamson to essentially play like All-Stars for the team to have any chance of overtaking the Grizzlies for the eighth spot in the Western Conference standings.
Even if the Pelicans don't overtake the Grizzlies for the No. 8 seed, they can force a play-in round if they hold the No. 9 spot and are within four games of that final spot.
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