One of the most cursed teams on the injury front on a yearly basis seemingly is already been bitten by the injury bug yet again.
The Pelicans starting small forward Solomon Hill underwent surgery to repair a torn left hamstring Monday morning and is expected to miss 6 to 8 months of action.
Story on ESPN: New Orleans loses starter Solomon Hill to hamstring surgery, could miss most of season. https://t.co/w1VAIp89Rg
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 27, 2017
Apparently the injury is very similar to Khris Middleton’s injury during the 2016 preseason which caused him to miss five months of action.
Projecting a six month recovery time on the best case scenario side would mean Hill would be back for the Pelicans in late February, right after the all-star break. If he were to miss eight months of action, he would essentially miss the entire season with a return in April.
Hill started 71 games last season and played 29.7 minutes per game. Losing a starting small forward for a team with the least amount of depth at that position for maybe any team in the NBA is a huge issue and puts a damper on a team desperate to make the postseason in a hotly contested and much improved western conference.
The Pelicans may have to work some magic to bring in another veteran to give them some depth at the small forward position. Expect a lot of three guard lineups alongside Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins.
