New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson will make his regular season NBA debut on Wednesday against the San Antonio Spurs.
Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry says Williamson will play “short, consecutive minutes” initially:
“I think everybody’s gotta understand, he doesn’t have minutes restrictions, but we’re gonna have all eyes on him as far as the energy bursts and how long he can play consecutively,” Gentry told Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. “Obviously, it’ll be short minutes for a while. Short, consecutive minutes.”
NBA TV ratings are down this season and some believe the absence of Williamson is one reason why. Zion was a force for the Pelicans in the preseason, but a knee injury forced the 2019 No. 1 overall pick to go under the knife before even stepping on an NBA floor for a regular season game.
The NBA gave the Pelicans a bunch of national TV games because the prevailing thought was fans around the world wanted to see Williamson play.
The NBA can’t expect Williamson alone to make the ratings higher, but his return to the Pelicans’ lineup will surely help. There hasn’t been this much hype surrounding a young player since LeBron James came into the league back in 2003.
In his lone season at Duke, Williamson put on an absolute show. The forward averaged 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists while shooting 68.0 percent from the field, 33.8 percent from beyond the arc and 64.0 percent from the free-throw line.
Pelicans fans can’t wait to see Zion Williamson play alongside Jrue Holiday, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and the rest of the core in New Orleans.
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