The firing of Van Gundy in favor of Green at last season's end was an acknowledgement of their misjudgment, but the Pelicans were right to reintegrate Williamson with caution then, just as they are now. Multiple outlets have reported Williamson's alleged unhappiness with the organization, rooted they say in the team's handling of his return from the 2019 knee injury and Griffin's 2020 hiring of head coach Stan Van Gundy. Rampant speculation has been made about Williamson's longterm future on the Pelicans, all as he has publicly said, "I love it here. He lamented on media day, "They told me it wasn't all the way there yet, it was kind of just slowly healing, but it's gonna heal, it's just a matter of time."Ī matter of time, is not what the New Orleans fanbase wants to hear, given the gloom-and-doom scenarios painted for them. The hope is that Williamson's metatarsal does not heal so slowly as Indiana Pacers forward TJ Warren's navicular bone, which has left him sidelined since December. The fact he had not been cleared to run at the start of training camp always made his opening-night availability unrealistic, just as the fact he has not been cleared to scrimmage with the team makes his return by the start of December unrealistic. Should Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin have made more room for the possibility Williamson would not meet the initial prognosis? Of course. Still, there is no clear timetable for his full return to the practice court, let alone his minutes-restricted debut, and in retrospect there never was. 20 has quelled to crossing fingers that the bone is healed by Thanksgiving. Scans since have revealed the bone is healing, just not at the rate of expectation.Īs a result, the confident projection of a home-opening debut on Oct. He and the team projected that optimism on media day, relaying the prognosis on Sept. New Orleans Pelicans coach Willie Green told reporters on Tuesday that Williamson has yet to be fully cleared to practice and is 2-3 weeks away from the next round of scans on his injured foot.ĭoctors initially told Williamson and the Pelicans the bone was expected to heal prior to the regular season, an optimistic timeline for his fracture. We do not know when exactly Williamson will be back on the court. We do know Williamson fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot in early August, two years after tearing the lateral meniscus in his right knee, and he has missed the start of the regular season for the second time in his three-year career.
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