Pelicans' Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum Ruled Out for Season

The New Orleans Pelicans have just put the nail in the coffin to their lost 2024-25 season.

After kicking things off with playoff expectations, fresh off a 49-win run in 2023-24, New Orleans was saddled with a rash of brutal injuries.

First, All-Star offseason acquisition Dejounte Murray got hurt during his very first game for his new squad. It was a fortuitous omen of things to come.

Now, the Pelicans are officially calling it a season for All-Star power forward Zion Williamson and standout starting guard CJ McCollum.

They will sit out for the club's final few regular season bouts, with the playoffs already out of reach.

Per New Orleans, McCollum suffered a right bone contusion on March 23 during a matchup against the Detroit Pistons.

Williamson, who has once again barely played this year, is recovering from a lower back bone contusion he incurred in a March 19 clash with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The prescribed plans for both players are listed as "rest and treatment," which seemingly suggests that more drastic interventions could be unnecessary.

New Orleans truly punted on its season at the trade deadline, offloading one-time All-Star small forward Brandon Ingram to the Toronto Raptors.

Read More: Raptors Land Brandon Ingram in Blockbuster Deal with Pelicans

The move appeared to signal that the Pelicans seemed to be prioritizing Williamson over Ingram in the frontcourt.

The trade was all the more surprising given that Williamson missed two months of action at the start of the year — not an atypical fate for the oft-hurt big man — and was even suspended by New Orleans earlier in the season.

Read More: Pelicans Suspend Star Zion Williamson

With the team now fully Williamson's, New Orleans descended into lottery-bound misery.

At 21-54 on the year, New Orleans currently has the fourth-worst record this season. Sans Williamson and McCollum, two prolific scorers when they're right, the Pelicans could be in line for a world of hurt with seven games left on their regular season schedule.

The 24-year-old Williamson, a two-time All-Star, finishes the year with averages of 24.6 points on 56.7 percent shooting from the field and 65.6 percent shooting from the foul line, 7.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists across just 30 healthy games. He has now played in 30 or fewer games during four of his six NBA seasons.

When he's right, the former Duke Blue Devil is one of the most unstoppable forces driving inside the paint. But he's very often not right, to his teammates' detriment.

McCollum, 33, concludes his 12th season with averages of 21.1 points on a .444/.373/.717 slash line, 4.1 dimes and 3.8 boards in 56 games. He is on the first year of a two-season, $64 million veteran contract extension he inked upon being traded to the club from the Portland Trail Blazers in the summer of 2022.

More New Orleans Pelicans:

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Thunder Lander Center in Blockbuster Trade with Pelicans

Pelicans Lose Yet Another Core Player to Long-Term Injury

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