The New Orleans Pelicans are going to finish what's left of their schedule in the 2024-25 NBA regular season without the help of Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum, who have both been shut down by the team.
“The New Orleans Pelicans announced today that CJ McCollum and Zion Williamson will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season due to their respective injuries,” the team shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday night.
McCollum has missed the last three Pelicans games due to a right foot bone contusion while Williamson has sat out the last five New Orleans outings because of a back issue.
The 33-year-old McCollum has not played since dropping 40 points in a 136-130 road loss at the hands of the Detroit Pistons on March 23.
Williamson, on the other hand, most recently played in a 119-115 road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 19, scoring 29 points to go with eight assists and five rebounds plus three steals while shooting 12-for-16 from the floor in 30 minutes.
Amid New Orleans' decision to make the season-ending announcements about the statuses of McCollum and Williamson is the fact that the Pelicans have already been out of contention for a spot in the 2025 NBA Playoffs and in the NBA Play-in Tournament. New Orleans only has a 21-54 record following a 98-94 victory at home last Sunday over the Charlotte Hornets, who are also eliminated from the playoff race. The Pelicans are sitting in the 14th spot in the Western Conference standings with only the 16-59 Utah Jazz owning a worse record.
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With the latest update by the Pelicans, the 24-year-old Williamson concludes his sixth season in the NBA with averages of 24.6 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists plus a 56.7 percent shooting from the field through only 30 games.
As for McCollum, he put up 21.1 points, dished out 4.1 assists and grabbed 3.8 rebounds through 56 games while shooting 44.4 percent from the floor and posting a 55.0 true shooting percentage in his third full season with the Pels, who acquired him via a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2022.
The Pelicans only have seven games remaining on their schedule before an early vacation.
New Orleans will play both the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers on the road in their next two games on Wednesday and Friday, respectively, before a home date with the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday. After that are two road games versus the Brooklyn Nets (Apr. 9) and the Bucks (Apr. 10). The Pels' final two games of the season will be played in the Big Easy opposite the Miami Heat (Apr. 11) and the Oklahoma City Thunder (Apr. 13).
Rexwell Villas is an experienced sports writer covering a variety of sports, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and college football. He's a Communications Arts graduate from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines.
