OCTOBER 15, 12:30pm: After conducting further testing, the Rockets now fear Green’s foot injury is worse than initially believed and are concerned that he could miss the entire 2019/20 season, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). ESPN’s Tim MacMahon adds more details, tweeting that the Rockets think Green’s injury may be a Lisfranc fracture.
The club has yet to issue a formal update, so we’re still waiting for confirmation on Green’s potential recovery timetable. MacMahon notes that the veteran swingman is seeing another specialist today.
OCTOBER 14, 10:35pm: Gerald Green‘s left foot injury will likely cost him 2-3 months, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports.
The team has not yet released an official diagnosis but the veteran Rockets wing is believed to have broken his foot. While another test is scheduled on Tuesday, all indications are that Green will miss a chunk of the season. The injury occurred during a non-contact situation while playing in a preseason game last week in Tokyo.
Green, 33, re-signed with Houston on a one-year contract in July after agreeing to a deal in June.
Ben McLemore, Thabo Sefolosha and Chris Clemons are the candidates to pick up Green’s minutes at the wing, assuming they all make the team. Austin Rivers and Danuel House have already established roles in the wing rotation, Feigen adds.
That works out to around 25-40 games, so at worst about half the season. It will be interesting to see if Clemons makes the 15-man roster, because it could mean that they go ahead and cut Nene now rather than later.
Or they could sign Clemons to a 2-way deal, then convert it to a regular contract in a couple on months when get rid of Nene. Either way works.
Dude just stop. They aren’t going to win regardless.
So now Green is likely out for the season, which probably means more minutes for Ben McLemore. So that means the 7 regular players in the rotation will be Harden, Westbrick, Capela, Tucker, Gordon, House, and Rivers. Then they can rotate Tyson Chandler and Ryan Anderson as the backup center, while they rotate Sefolosha and McLemore backing up on the wing.
Still doesn’t matter. Just stop.