Josh Hart injury update: pic.twitter.com/oLScF7htbD
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) April 3, 2021
Re: Josh Hart: Treatment options (surgery?) will dictate his time lost. Since the 2005-06 NBA season, the average number of missed games for in-season UCL repairs of the thumb is ~26.0 games or roughly seven weeks.
— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) April 2, 2021
With Josh Hart out with an injury that usually takes about 7 weeks to come back from, and only 6 weeks left of the season, it seems fairly plausible that Hart is done for the year. He may come back a bit early, that is possible, but this could well be it for him this season.
It's a contract year for him, so that bites pretty hard, and the question we have to ask ourselves as a team is what we do with him going forward. A Restricted Free Agent, we can match any offer he's given potentially but of course there's a limit on how far you can go with that. While Hart is less likely than Lonzo to get that huge $20m+ offer, what kind of deal would people want to see him come back for? Or do people even want him back at all?
Here's his season statistics:
- 9.2pts, 8.0rbds, 2.3asts per game
- 43.9/32.6/77.5 splits (56.6% TS, about league average overall)
- 1.4% STL, 0.9%BLK (6th on the team and 9th on the team respectively among guys who have played at least 500 minutes)
- -1.1 BPM, +0.3 VORP, 12.4 PER, 0.092 WS/48 (2.6 W/S total)
Advanced Statistical Showing:
- +0.8 RAPTOR, good for 2.4 Wins Above Replacement
- -1.5 EPM, with +1.4 estimated Wins
- -0.3 ScoreVal, -0.3 PlayVal
- -0.5 On/Off
- -0.2 RPM
- +0.31 LEBRON (118th in the league, 6th on the team)
What's the verdict?