Sidelined since March 4th with tendinitis in his left Achilles, it appears that Memphis Grizzlies guard Mike Conley will miss the remainder of the season, playoffs included.
When asked about the potential return of the plethora of currently injured Grizzlies players, head coach Dave Joerger didn’t necessarily give us good news on that front. He simply indicated that P.J. Hairston is the only player he expects to see the court prior to the end of the season (via The Commercial Appeal).
The site went on to report the following:
“The Commercial Appeal independently confirmed that Conley was re-evaluated last week by team doctors. It was determined that it is in Conley’s best interest to not return to action until the 2016-17 season.”
The list of players included here are: Conley, Hairston, Brandan Wright and Jordan Adams. Not mentioned is Marc Gasol, who had already been ruled out for the season with a broken right foot back in early February.
While the Grizzlies were able to overcome these rash of injuries initially, they have caught up to the team in a big way recently. Memphis enters this week’s action having lost six consecutive games and 10 of 12.
Once considered a lock to earn a top-five seed out west, the Grizzlies now find themselves just three games ahead of the Houston Rockets for the final playoff spot.
With Conley now likely sidelined for the rest of the season, there’s a decent chance Memphis will fall completely out of the playoffs by the time the regular season draws to a conclusion next week.
Their final five games are all against teams with winning records, including two outings against the 69-8 Golden State Warriors.