LaMarcus Aldridge shocked the NBA world and proved his loyalty to the Portland Trail Blazers players, fans and front office by electing to put off surgery for now and play through the pain of a torn thumb ligament to suit up for his team.
While Aldridge came back for the Blazers to score 26 points, grab 9 rebounds in 36 minutes of play for the Blazers who scored a win over the visiting Washington Wizards. Aldridge seemed to do well playing through the injury and could be effective still for the Blazers right now, but in the future it could cause some problems for next season.
The following from The Oregonian‘s Jason Quick:
Although Aldridge is not risking his long-term health by playing with a torn ligament, a specialist in the field said he could now be facing a recovery that will take twice as long — up to three or four months.
And if the Blazers reach the conference finals, or the NBA Finals, his recovery could extend into training camp, which typically opens around October 1.
It might be a lot to ask Aldridge to delay surgery for that long. In all actuality, they could be trying too see if he can fight through and play some upcoming tough games for them and have him ready for playoff time. The only problem is, there isn’t a stretch in which the Blazers have an easy time to escape some tough teams. They only have 2 instances for the rest of the year in which they play non-playoff teams back to back. A far contrast to where they started the season playing over half of their first 40 games against non-playoff teams.
Either way you go in Portland, it will definitely be tough to fight through the rest of the season.
