Was there an update I missed after his two week check in? This Wednesday, I believe, will be his third week out since sustaining the injury so I imagine he's close?
They said initial If CP3 returns at the end of January, that'll be 6 weeks since his injury. Way longer than the 2-4 week window we were initially given. I get that they're being cautious, but that's a lot of pressure on Harden to carry the load for that long. Thankfully the schedule isn't too bad between now and then.
I'd be fine if Paul didn't start playing again until after the All-Star game. I think they'll find some wing scoring help to take the load off a little...but Harden is going to do whatever he feels is necessary on a given night to win the game regardless of who is on the court with him.
I do not want him out til the All-Star Break if he's healthy enough to play in February. Look at the schedule next month: 2/1 - at Denver 2/2 - at Utah 2/4 - at Phoenix 2/6 - at Sacramento 2/9 - OKC 2/11 - Dallas 2/13 - at Minnesota Maybe rest him on the B2B at Utah and then at Phoenix, but otherwise he needs to play those games.
Chris Paul and the Rockets are hoping he comes back at the very end of January. They are going to be very cautious. Expect it to come out soon. * edit........ there you go.... MDA came out and finally said it
Are you trying to say that's a difficult stretch...? Have you seen our schedule for the last 2-3 weeks without Paul? If Gordon comes back and can get in reasonable form, we will be fine getting Paul the rest he needs. We don't need to win 60+ games again. HCA in the first round is enough, and even that's not really necessary (unless Harden wants MVP). I'd rather have Paul healthy in the playoffs. ... And hell, given the way the rest of the west has been playing, and given our SoS for the rest of the season, we could win 1st in the west even with Paul missing another month.
When Paul returns, I really believe we should rest him on any remaining back-to-backs. We need to reduce the wear-and-tear.
What wear and tear? He has played 82 games once since 2005. What he needs to do is show up in better shape and with better energy than he's shown this season.
I thought he was actually playing with pretty good energy when he got hurt this last time. He doesn't look out of shape. However, when you get older and have had certain injuries that reoccur, they're likely to continue to happen unless its managed through rehab, injury maintenance and playing time. I was merely suggesting MDA needs to consider the latter when he returns. Of course we could debate why we should have to manage playing time for a $40M man, but its too late to change his contract. We have to live with that albatross for 4 years and we better figure out quickly how to get the most bang for the buck with CP3.
I agree our hands are tied now, but at the same time we must demand that he shows up to the season in better shape. His energy was nothing like last season imo - lazy with the iso's, settling for mediocre shots, even giving up on defense. I'm glad Harden picked the team up because Paul has the potential to bicker till he gets on people's nerves. But year he can definitely show up in better shape and we should definitely sit him out of back to backs and limit him to 30 minutes. MDA deserves partial blame for upping his minutes too, what did he think was going to happen with an undersized, out of shape, injury prone Chris Paul playing a career high in minutes? Almost by design.
cp3 is as big of a gym rat as harden. he's been like that his entire career and it hasn't stopped since hes gotten here. he was never in bad shape. he's just an older player and being prone to injuries is just more common then.
Totally disagree. He showed up visibly out of shape this season. Last season he was in very good shape to start the season. It's not a body type thing either, this has been an issue with him. Ask some Clippers fans too. He needs to be in elite shape, especially because of his injury proneness. Harden, Paul and Melo are all gym rats and none of them are particularly good at showing up to a season in shape. They are not the worst, but we shouldn't be comparing players making $30m+ to average players.
