Since early August, the Memphis Grizzlies have been without their second best player in Jaren Jackson Jr. They’ve actually done pretty well without him, but have some serious holes in their offense and defense as a result. His return this year could mean the difference between an opportunity with a play-in series and a long offseason after another year without playoffs.
The story of Jaren Jackson Jr.’s return to play for the hasn’t been one with many updates. The true recovery time of his injury is foggy, with recovery times as short as 8 weeks being presented as a possibility.
But after he received surgery to repair his knee, it was clear that he’d be out for more than 8 weeks. 6 months later and many fans are still wondering when they’ll see the return of their promising young star. After a few uncharacteristically bad defensive performances from his team, he is needed now more than ever.
His return may be closer on the horizon than most believe
When looking into the recovery time for a meniscus injury with surgery, most sources will lead you to a number between 3 and 6 months. This number is promising, but makes you wonder what is taking so long in the case of JJJ.
Having injured his meniscus in early august, he is now well beyond 6 months of recovery, so logically we would have seen him by now. But the Grizzlies are likely in no mood to rush him, especially after seeing a scary injury to Ja Morant earlier in the year.
It has been reported that he is back on the court and moving relatively normally. Woj stated in an ESPN interview that Jackson’s return was likely to happen shortly after the All-Star break. That would give us a likely return sometime in the next two weeks.
It’s unfortunate, but we’ve only been given a limited amount of details on the matter. The return of Justise Winslow came out of nowhere, so don’t expect to hear much until Jackson is back on the court in a Grizzlies uniform. At the very least, we can be hopeful that Memphis only has a handful of games without their anchor in the lineup.