Jason Smith Set to Go Under the Knife

Earlier today, the Pelicans announced Jason Smith would be sidelined indefinitely with a right knee injury. Now, it's being reported he will have surgery this Wednesday to remove a piece of loose cartilage:

"A piece of cartilage kind of chipped off; I want to get it taken care of," Smith said. "They said if I tried to (play) through it, it could lock the knee up or tear some other stuff up. It (cartilage) is kind of floating. Once they get in there then they can take a guess at how severe it is. The quicker I get it taken care of, the quicker I can get back."

With both Ryan Anderson and Smith out, fans got a glimpse against the Warriors Saturday night of what to expect alongside Anthony Davis and it was far from pretty. As the recap denoted, the combination of Greg Stiemsma, Alexis Ajinca and Jeff Withey left a lot to be desired.

Monty Williams went on to say in the Nola.com article above that the starting center position will probably remain in a state of flux. Consequently, don't expect any solidarity to emerge as the Pelicans go into patchwork mode for the foreseeable future.

At the very least, Jeff Withey appears poised to have his best opportunity of the season. Provided Monty is an equal opportunity minutes manager, it shouldn't be too difficult for Withey to solidify a consistent role game-to-game. Almost halfway through the schedule, many fans may finally get their wish.