hard hit for some LA Clippers who had started to be among the favorites for the 2022-2023 season. Paul George suffered a right knee injuryin a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, March 21 and The remainder of the Tactical Phase will be lost to the Angels.
Below is a review of it details on George’s injury and how it affects the Clippers.
What injury did Paul George suffer?
After undergoing an MRI, Paul George was found to have suffered a right knee sprain. The same leg he suffered a very serious injury in 2014 when he suffered a fractured tibia and fibula while representing the United States National Team.
Since that fracture in 2014, George had injury problems, but mostly in his upper body (shoulder and elbow). This is the first serious knee injury of his career.
When will Paul George return from injury?
Estimated timelines for diagnosing your injury mark a recovery process between two and three weeks, to be reassessed there. In this way, George is almost certain to miss the remainder of the regular season.
His participation in the Playoffs will be determined when he is re-evaluated, in the first days of April. The postseason begins Saturday, April 15.while on Tuesday the 11th the West Play-In begins.
The Paul George contract
Paul George signed a four-year, $176 million contract extension in 2020. Currently in the second year of this extension, the collection 42.5 million in the 2022-2023 campaign.
In 2023-2024 it will charge 45.6 millionwhile for the 2024-2025 season it has a The player’s choice is valid for 48.8 million.
How does Paul George’s injury affect the LA Clippers?
At the time of George’s injury, the Clippers were 38-35 and ranked fifth in the Western Conference. But beyond their position and record, their performances in the previous weeks began to distinguish them from each other campaign candidates.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George finally looked healthy and had shared back-to-back gameson a team that, aside from the addition of Russell Westbrook midway through the regular season, had begun to win the chemistry and knowledge which they did not have in previous years.
Outside of Denver and Phoenix, the Clippers had the case to incorporate it second batch of western favouritesalong with teams like Memphis or beyond their 2022-2023 non-regular, Golden State.
Of course the defeat of Giorgos hits this expectation, in a team that now It will depend almost entirely on what Kawhi Leonard does as a superstar.. There will be good defenders and role players around him, but not really decisive pieces to contend with in a postseason run.
With how uniform the classification of the West is, A couple of back-to-back losses can send those from Lue into the Play-In. And even if they do go straight to the playoffs, we’ll have to wait and see how and when George returns.
Before George’s injury, the Clippers had a clean sheet (difference per 100 possessions) +8.3 with PG and Leonard on the court and had positive balance in any lineup that featured the former Thunder forward: +3.6 (even counting the quintets without Kawhi).
However, any formation without George drops to -6.5. Even quintets with Leonard on the court, but no PG, reflect a negative balance: -0.3. Reversing this trend and staying among the best in the West will be difficult.
The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the NBA or its organizations.
