New Orleans Pelicans Keep Zion Williamson In A Bubble To Start NBA Seeding Games

The New Orleans Pelicans were always going to look out for Zion Williamson’s safety, privacy, and long-term well-being. Williamson was slowly brought back to the team after an October meniscus tear and was given all the space needed to deal with an urgent family medical emergency in the past two weeks. All of this was done with Williamson’s future in mind.

The Orlando campus experiment is the epitome of living in the present in the NBA world. Teams that are there had a theoretical chance of making the playoffs, however slight they may have been. After last night’s opening game loss to the Utah Jazz, the New Orleans Pelicans are on the edge of having their bubble dreams popped. Though the team had plenty of opportunities to win, the biggest storyline after the game blamed that situation on a lack of playing time for Williamson especially in the last few moments of the game.

Williamson can establish a position and get a bucket or draw a foul. He proved that much during his first 19 regular-season games. He bullied his way to such a bucket to start the game. Down to the last moments of a tie ball game, it seems the perfect time for Alvin Gentry to deploy the sensational rookie. However, Williamson stayed socially distant from the on-court action to end the game. Gentry’s hands were tied.

“Of course, we wish we could’ve played him down the stretch. We used the minutes that were available to us. That’s the way it is. We weren’t going to stick him back out there. Our medical people said that we played him in the minutes that we allowed him to play in. I thought he looked good. I thought he had some good moments. Obviously, we’re a much better and much different basketball team when he was on the floor…I was told the minutes that he could play, and that’s what I did…That’s just the way it is. We weren’t going to stick him back out there.”

The narrative got confusing when Williamson told reporters a seemingly contradictory situation was at hand.

Williamson told the media after the game, “It’s not even just conditioning. It’s just getting my flow to the game back. This is the NBA, this is the best players in the world and you want to feel comfortable. I don’t want to hurt my team more than I helped them in a sense, if you understand me.”

It is not hard to understand why the Pelicans lost this game and it has little to do with Williamson not playing. He was a -16 while on the court and had two turnovers to one assist. Sure he scored 13 points in 15 minutes, but he got a quick five to open the game. Once the game settled into something besides the excited few minutes where each team is just getting settled, Williamson was not exactly dominating anywhere but the rim.

The same can be said for Lonzo Ball, who missed four shots at the rim and made none of his jumpers from outside of the paint. The team had 21 turnovers yet still found themselves up 16 at one point in the game. The led by 9 going into the fourth quarter. This loss cannot be blamed on a restriction for Williamson.

Gentry said the turnovers were hard to overcome. He added, “We did that against a team that’s 30th in the league in forcing turnovers. We shot ourself in the foot for the most part, because they’re not a team that forces turnovers. They’re a good solid defensive team. They pack their defense in. Obviously, they have a rim protector in Rudy (Gobert), but you can’t turn the ball over 21 times against them. I thought we played, really, a good first half with the ball movement, and we still managed our turnovers pretty good, but that third quarter we let it get away from us. I think we had eight in the third quarter, and against that team, there’s no way you can do that.”

Williamson admitted it is a tough situation but he will trust the team’s process in bringing him back into the rotation. He has missed too much time this season to rush into any game, much less in such a unique playing environment and so little to actually gain long-term. Though there is urgency in the locker room to get some wins, it is a ‘patience instead of pitchforks’ situation after this tough loss, for both Gentry and Williamson.

Williamson missed a week of practice and the scrimmages. That alone is reason to hold him back in this first game. This edition of the Pelicans can still make a run in Orlando and will probably make it more exciting by allowing Williamson to play unrestricted by the end of the bubble experiment. Just like the regular season, these tough moments of agony will be forgotten as soon as Williamson provides a few more moments of celebration on the court.