Pelicans Guard Jrue Holiday Knocked Out for Another 3 Weeks

Ouch.

A season filled with crowd silencing injuries, mind numbing slumps and gut wrenching losses was dealt another huge blow on Wednesday afternoon.

Jrue Holiday re-aggravated stress reaction in his lower right leg Monday. He's out for another 3 weeks, when he'll be reevaluated.
— Jennifer Hale (@JenHale504) February 18, 2015

Guard Jrue Holiday, who has been nursing this stress reaction since January 12th matchup against the Boston Celtics, is out for the foreseeable future due to a setback in his recovery.

While Jrue’s health is obviously the main concern in this matter, the handling of his injury has been murky at best.

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The original time frame for his return was unannounced until nine days after the injury took place, January 21st. On this date, it was revealed Holiday would be out for about 2-4 weeks. At the time I hoped that given this time frame, Holiday could rest up and be ready to go after the All-Star break.

And here we are.

Dec 10, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday (11) brings the ball up the court against the Dallas Mavericks during the first half at the American Airlines Center. Holiday finishes with 30 points and 10 assists. The Mavericks defeated the Pelicans 112-107. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

What originally had seemed like a couple of weeks without the starting point guard for the team has now morphed into a minimum of two months.

In addition, the team is reporting Holiday is now visiting a specialist for his injury in Los Angeles.

I am not too familiar with the process that teams use in determining injury severity, but would it not make sense to send him to a specialist as soon as possible?

Either the training staff is not performing up to par, or the organization is blatantly lying about the severity of the injury.

What might be the scariest part about this debacle is that it has happened in New Orleans to guard Eric Gordon.

In his first season with the team, Gordon was diagnosed with a knee bruise and was expected to be out 2-4 weeks. Gordon did not play for the rest of the season, and complications from that original injury plagued him until the start of this season.

Holiday missed a total of 5 games in his last three seasons on the Philadelphia 76ers. If he returns in 3 weeks, the best case scenario at this point, he will have missed 78 in just two seasons.

Regardless of what exactly the injury is or how it was handled, the Pelicans must continue to play on without Holiday. Monty will most definitely not let his players quit playing as hard as possible.

With Tyreke Evans as the primary ball handler, the Pels have managed to find some success. These next few weeks will provide more data on whether or not Tyreke deserves to be a part of the starting lineup.

With 29 games remaining, one can only hope that Ryan Anderson finally heats up and stays hot for the remainder of the season. Eric Gordon needs to keep producing at a high level.

Above all else, Anthony Davis needs to continue to be Anthony Davis. A team with one of the league’s premier talents is never totally out of the playoff race, especially one this close.

This Pelicans team has too much talent to throw in the towel even if Monty Williams let them. The Holiday injury may add a “nobody believes in us” edge to the locker room. It is a tough pill to swallow, but the fans cannot give up hope just yet.

Jan 18, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday (11) motions as he watches the game while inactive against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre. The Pelicans beat the Raptors 95-93. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Ultimately, this cannot be considered anything but bad news. Davis and Holiday continue to fail at staying on the court together, a trend that hurts some of the long term value.

Hopefully, Holiday can return by the end of the season and prove he can still play at a high level. Who knows? Maybe the Pels can miraculously sneak their way into the playoffs.

If not, Pelicans fans may have to start seeing “2-4 weeks” as a knockout blow to their favorite players……

Next: Pelicans All-Star Weekend: Three Point Shoot-Out

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