Will Zion Williamson be able to return before the end of the regular season?

New Orleans Pelicans’ Zion Williamson last played in the NBA back in early January. He was injured in the Pelicans’ loss to Philadelphia 76ers and was initially expected to return in three weeks.

The injury occurred when he secured a rebound and accelerated up the floor, sustaining the injury late in the third quarter and being subbed out of the game.

Recently, The Athletic’s Shams Charania delivered the latest on Zion’s injury. Charania claimed that the Pelicans are optimistic that Williamson will return before the end of the season:

“The Pelicans have been optimistic that he is gonna return at some point before the end of the regular season. I am told that he did some on-court running and shooting this week, but I haven’t been told that he has progressed at all to significant contact work and obviously that will have to be last step or one of the last final stage steps before you get back on the floor and I haven’t heard he has done that yet.”

He added:

“I think the Pelicans will revaluate him this week and see eactly where he is at and how much time he needs to get to that point.”

While Zion Williamson is expected to return before the end of the season, no exact date has been given out yet.

New Orleans Pelicans need Zion Williamson to salvage Playoff hopes

Without Zion Williamson, the New Orleans Pelicans have struggled this season with a 17-25 record. They are currently in 12th place in the NBA Western Conference standings, having lost 10 of their last 15 games, with a 34-37 record.

Shams Charania agreed that the Pelicans need Williamson on the court before the season ends to make a strong push for the play-in tournament:

“You need Zion Williamson if you are going to be competitive. And this is a team that has also blown leads in the last month or so. They need their guy, they need their guy in Zion Williamson."

He added:

"He was not only dominating at his position, but he was also playing point guard and bringidng the ball up the court. And really initiating the offense for the Pelicans, and they miss that so far.”

Zion is averaging 26.0 points on 60.8% shooting with 7.0 rebounds and 4.6 assists. However, injuries have hampered his NBA progress. In total, he has played just 114 out of 297 possible regular-season games, along with missing all eight postseason games last season and the All-Star Game this season.