This past year has been a testing one for New Orleans Pelicans center Alexis Ajinca. Once a major part of their center rotation with counterpart Omer Asik, all of that changed when they acquired arguably the best big man in the NBA in DeMarcus Cousins. Since the addition of Boogie, Ajinca has been almost completely out of the rotation and injuries have hurt his chances at changing that.
This season, it has been a knee injury that was expected to keep Ajinca out for approximately a month or so. However, that timeline now looks vastly different as the team announced the big man underwent knee surgery and is expected to be out of action for 4-6 months.
The New Orleans Pelicans announced today that center Alexis Ajinca underwent successful surgery on his right patellar tendon yesterday in Chicago, IL. The typical timetable to return to play for this type of injury is 4-6 months.
Though Alexis Ajinca has never been a game changer, the veteran does provide a solid interior presence when needed off the bench. Though he hasn’t had his number called much even last year after the addition of Cousins, he provides some valuable depth that could’ve been used now with Anthony Davis out of the lineup due to an adductor strain.
With a recovery timeline of 4-6 months, it seems likely that Ajinca will miss the remainder of the 2017-18 campaign unless the Pelicans are still alive deep into the playoffs. Expect Cousins to continue shouldering all the work he can handle with not only Davis out but a thinning big man rotation behind him.
