2 hours ago
(2 hours ago)F Gump Wrote: Factually, it's nowhere near the "long window" of missed games (for a team that trades for him) that it looks like at first glance, if the trade was navigated wisely. The 6 week window for a return from injury would have AD back shortly after the ASB.
Let's plug in some actual dates:
1 Date of injury - Thurs Jan 8
2 End of 6 weeks healing time - Thurs Feb 19
3 Trade deadline (last possible trade date) - Thurs Feb 5
4 All-star break with no games played - Fri Feb 13-Thurs Feb 19
So if AD is truly on a 6 week layoff, and was traded at the deadline (Thurs Feb 5), the new team would be losing his services for only 1 week of games (Fri Feb 6-Thurs Feb 12). ATL for example has only 3 games in that window (CHAR, MINN, CHAR) and that's probably true of almost every team. Then when everyone comes back from AS break, that's the end of 6 weeks and AD should be healthy again. In addition, because it's a hand injury (rather than leg or foot), he can stay in condition and be ready to go when the return from AS break happens.
AD also has major incentive to be back, and be fully in shape, the very first day, because he will be looking to motivate that extension from the new team. You might very well see the same sort of "AD" that you saw the 1st game with DAL, where he wanted to make a huge impression, and was a one-man dominant force on both ends, until pulling up lame.
Bingo. I would assume somebody in Paul´s company can do that math, too.