The Jan. 22 addition of Zion Williamson to New Orleans’ starting lineup seemed to immediately vault the Pelicans to a new level confidence-wise, while also making them a more dynamic offensive team. Easily forgotten in the story of the 2019-20 season: The Pelicans were already turning a corner prior to the prized rookie’s memorable, nationally-televised NBA debut vs. San Antonio.
On Thursday, New Orleans announced that Williamson has left Orlando to attend to an urgent family medical matter, meaning the Pelicans will be without their second-leading scorer (23.6 ppg) and second-best rebounder (6.8 rpg) for an undetermined amount of time. New Orleans will miss Williamson greatly both on and off the court during his absence, but in the meantime, the Pelicans can point to a 10-4 record in the 14 games before Williamson dazzled a massive ESPN audience against the Spurs. JJ Redick started 12 of those 14 contests, including wins over playoff locks Denver, Indiana, Houston, as well as postseason hopefuls Portland, Sacramento and Memphis.
Alvin Gentry on Williamson’s departure: “He’s a great player we’ll miss, but one thing we’ve always talked about – even when we went through the tough times – was next man up. We’re a deep team. A very deep team. We’ll have guys who step in and play. We’ll have guys who’ll have to up their game a little bit more. But right now we’re not concerned about the basketball part of it. We’re concerned about (Williamson’s) family.”
Williamson has appeared in 19 of NOLA’s 64 games this season, with the Pelicans starting just 7-23 in their first 30 games without him. They went 11-4 after that in his DNPs, including a very short-handed Feb. 8 road win over Indiana.
“As much as it hurts to say, we’ve done it before,” guard Jrue Holiday said. “Obviously we were excited to have him on the court, but with him gone, taking care of his family, we’ll hold down the fort for him. He’s our brother and he needs to take care of his family, take care of his business. This is nothing new. I feel like we talk about it all the time… with how crazy this season has been, this is just another obstacle we have to get through as a team.”
“It’s part of the job to have ups and downs,” forward Nicolo Melli said. “We’ve done a very good job during the season (dealing with them)… (Adversity) happens in sports. I think we have all of the qualities to do something good.”
New Orleans (28-36) actually faced its first two scheduled opponents in Orlando – Utah and the LA Clippers – a total of six times in ’19-20 without Williamson suiting up for any of those matchups. Holiday said that regardless of who’s available to play, the Pelicans will maintain the philosophy that allowed them to dig out of a deep hole in mid-December, even though one of the NBA’s most talented young players didn’t put on a uniform until late January.
“It’s the same approach,” Holiday said. “We’re here to take care of business. We know when Zion gets back, he’ll fall right back in line, just like he did last time.”
