A hamstring injury has sidelined James Harden since April 5, but the Nets star remains “very confident” that he’ll be back before the postseason gets underway later this month, he said today (Twitter link via Malika Andrews of ESPN).
Harden spoke today about his injury rehab, telling reporters that he’s working on his conditioning, changing speeds, and changing directions, and adding that he feels “really good” (Twitter link via Andrews).
Harden’s plan for now is to play a couple games for Brooklyn before the regular season ends, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The club currently has six games left on its schedule, including a pair of back-to-backs on May 11-12 and May 15-16 to close the season. It’s unclear if the Nets would allow Harden to play both halves of a back-to-back set, even if he returns by May 15.
Harden was putting up his usual MVP-type numbers for the Nets before his injury, averaging 25.4 points, 11.0 assists, and 8.7 rebounds per game in 34 contests (37.3 MPG) with the team.
Assuming Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving stay healthy, Harden’s return will get the Nets as close to full strength as they’ve been in months. The three stars have only appeared in seven games together.
Of course he will. Star players treat the regular season like it is “spring training” anyway. Why don’t they just stop pretending and just tell the truth. “These games don’t matter, I make my money based on what I do in the postseason, so that’s when I am going to try.”
BS. Believe they want to play. The Nets do not want to risk their stars with what happened to KD at GS. Spencer Dinwiddie’s fighting his way back to play, but the Nets will play it conservative with him.
Believe what you want to believe. Have a nice day.
You realize contract incentives exist, right? Players make more money when they meet goals set for them in the regular season.
Agree in general but disagree on Harden. He’s played pretty consistently thru his career, probably to his detriment in the playoffs.
You can make a lot of criticisms on his career (and I’d agree) but he’s def earned the benefit of the doubt on actually wanting to play reg season games.
Grade 2 Hamstring 6 weeks recovery
Harden likes to play. He is hurt! But yes they do probably drag out some injuries to start players.