No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson will be held out for the remainder of this month’s Las Vegas Summer League after suffering a bruised left knee in Friday’s game, the Pelicans announced today in a press release.
While fans in Vegas will be disappointed not to see any more of Williamson in action this month, it’s no surprise that the Pelicans will be cautious with their new franchise cornerstone. Based on the club’s announcement, it doesn’t sound as if Zion’s knee issue is serious.
“Zion will move forward from this incident without issue,” head of basketball operations David Griffin said in a statement. “However, in an abundance of caution, we have made the determination that he will not appear in game action for the remainder of the NBA Summer League. He will continue to take part in training and conditioning with our performance team.”
Williamson played just nine minutes in his professional debut on Friday vs. the Knicks, but looked good in limited action, pouring in 11 points and grabbing three rebounds.
In his brief court time last night the NBA Court even in the Summer League looked a lot smaller than the ACC. Maybe Enes Kanter was onto something calling Zion ‘Julius Randle with hops.’ Zion is going to need to develop his outside game to excel in the NBA because it’s going to be difficult to bully his way to the basket as 6-7 in a grown mans game.
what do people not understand about this?
JULIUS RANDLE (the 2017-18 version, who’s to say he can’t still improve given he’s only 24) with INSANE HOPS is a VERY VERY GOOD PLAYER AND ABSOLUTELY WILL WIN ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Billing Zion as an immediate star in the league is the mistake the media made. He’s still a rookie and Yes he’ll probably win ROY. I’m not saying Zion won’t be a good NBA player. But he’s being anointed a star when his playing style doesn’t truly fit today’s NBA.
Name me one prospect who was an NBA star from Day One. LeBron’s game coming out of high school didn’t “truly fit today’s NBA” either. No one is saying he’s one of the 10-15 best players in the NBA right now but he absolutely has the potential to be in the next decade and anyone who is so short-sighted that they can’t see the forest for trees and wants to nitpick at a 19 year-old’s game, go ahead.
If everyone lived and died by the three point shot the NBA would not be a very interesting or competitive sport to watch either…Bring back the Big Man Game it’s more exciting to watch then a team shoot 66% of their field goals from the three point line.
Uber cautious. I guess you need to with him being the face of the franchise.
Uhhh why was he even playing summer league in the first place?? What did he or the Pels have to gain?
Experience. Not a hard concept.
Summer league is pointless for Zion or any top pick in the draft… only good for the dross & scrubs to try to earn a contract.
I heard scalpers made bank lol. Slightly disappointed. Would have liked to see him get 2-3 games in, and also see him play when their other picks could actually be allowed to play. I am still curious about his NBA position. Same question that was there before the season
Oden.
And the coddling begins