Zion Williamson is back.
He certainly looked in better shape and flashed his insane explosiveness on his way to 13 points and four rebounds in 15 minutes Tuesday night against the Bulls, his first game after missing all of last season following foot surgery.
ALLOW Z TO REINTRODUCE HIMSELF. pic.twitter.com/QWH0SnOVSo
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) October 5, 2022
There was some rust, and the Pelicans are wisely bringing him along slowly and not breaking out the entire playbook for a preseason game, but in the moments we saw Zion looked like he was all the way back.
The questions now are can he sustain it, and how to the Pelicans mesh him with other scoring options in CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram.
And maybe we shouldn’t leave rookie Dyson Daniels off that list, he looked good in his first NBA preseason game.
🇦🇺 @DysonDaniels came alive in the fourth quarter and sealed the W at the free-throw line for the @PelicansNBA #NBAPreseason #Pelicans
— NBA Australia (@NBA_AU) October 5, 2022
📊 15 PTS | 5 REB | 3 STL | 2 BLK pic.twitter.com/bKr8LyYF7J
The Pelicans are one of the most intriguing teams this season, a team that made the playoffs last season with a push after McCollum arrived, and now they add the elite interior scoring and athleticism of Zion to Ingram’s outside shot and slashing, not to mention and a solid core of role players. This team has top six potential if it can get stops. But in a deep West, nothing will be easy.