The New Orleans Pelicans will wrap up their regular season schedule this weekend.
Tonight, the Pelicans host the New York Knicks. On Sunday, they'll travel to Minneapolis to play the Minnesota Timberwolves. Those games will ultimately determine if the Pelicans will have to compete in the play-in tournament to reach the playoffs.
According to Oleh Kosel, writer at THE BIRD WRITES, the play-in tournament might actually help the Pelicans in the long run because the Pelicans would then be matched either the Denver Nuggets or the Memphis Grizzlies. Both of those teams are battling injuries as the postseason nears.
"Maybe landing at that seventh or eighth seed isn't the worst thing," Kosel said. "Denver hasn't played its best ball in a while, and everybody says that would be a good matchup for the Pelicans. I know the Grizzlies are tough and they have Ja Morant, but they may not have Steven Adams."
Kosel noted that if the the Pelicans were to work their way into the sixth seed, they'd face the Sacramento Kings and their potent offense in the first round. Just this past Tuesday, the Kings beat the Pelicans 121 to 103.
"We saw what the Kings can do," Kosel said. "So say the Pelicans were to get the sixth. You're not sure you want into that position because . . . you have to score 120 (or) 130 points a night to get to that team."
The million-dollar question is: Will we see Zion Williamson in the postseason?
"The earliest we'll see him is in the playoffs," Kosel said.
According to Kosel, all signs initially pointed to Zion Williamson returning to action this weekend, but setbacks in his recovery will force him to miss the final two games of the regular season. Kosel says the Pelicans don't want to rush Williamson's return because they want to make sure the star power forward is fully healthy when he does come back to the court.
"He'll have another week to rehab and get his conditioning back a little more because, right now, he's barely even running," Kosel said. "He's not on the five-on-five contact yet, so he needs at least another week."
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