No.
No, no.
No, no, no.
Not Anthony Davis. Not another marque injury. Not again. Not this season. Please, no.
Er, sorry. But injuries stink. And now Davis is dealing with a knee injury. He left the New Orleans Pelicans’ loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, and the situation was serious enough that he needed an MRI.
Fortunately, according to ESPN.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Vertical’s Shams Charania, the MRI came back negative:
As Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry told reporters, Anthony Davis MRI was negative. Another source tells ESPN that Davis will be day-to-day.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 25, 2017
Sources: Pelicans star Anthony Davis has no structural damage in injured left knee. He has swelling in knee, and will be day-to-day.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 25, 2017
Given Davis’ past semi-recurring brushes with injury, the Pelicans were smart to pull him on Tuesday night. They’re already banged up as it is, and they might have been able to close out a victory if they weren’t forced to go all DeMarcus Cousins everything down the stretch, but you don’t get medals for trying to win games in October. Hell, if this were last year, the regular season wouldn’t have even started yet.
Still, yikes.
Injuries have not been kind to the NBA in general this year, but the Pelicans are particularly ravaged by maladies. Solomon Hill is basically done for year. Frank Jackson is out until December. Rajon Rondo is still on the shelf. No one knows if Omer Asik or Alexis Ajinca will be healthy enough to play at all this season—or whether the Pelicans even want them to be healthy enough to play this season.
Tack on Jrue Holiday’s early-season struggles—could the dude hit a wide-open three, maybe?—and New Orleans ranks among the shallowest teams in the league. And as such, the temptation to rush Davis back will be there. Remember: Cousins is a free agent, and the Pelicans invested nine figures in Holiday over the summer. The people in charge desperately need this experiment to pan out in some form.
The Pelicans won’t, of course, rush Davis back too soon. They know better. They won’t jeopardize the rest of the season for a couple could-be wins now. They can only hope they’re not faced with such a decision at all, and that Davis is just plain fine in a couple days.
