Given that Derrick Favors’ injury status was elevated to “questionable” yesterday, there is some cautious optimism that he could indeed suit up tonight for the Utah Jazz.
The Utah Jazz are in fourth place in the Western Conference and just over a week away from their long-awaited return to the postseason. That, of course, is reason enough for any Jazz fan to be happy and thrilled with the progress that’s been made this season.
However, if there’s one gripe that Jazz fans likely have about how the year has gone, it’s that it would have been nice to be able to see this team at full strength throughout the year. All season long, this Utah squad has been absolutely unable to stay healthy. With just four games left in the season, they’re projected starters for the year have played only 13 games together.
Jazz are in 4th in the West. George Hill, Rodney Hood, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert have played 13 games together. (11-2)
— David Locke (@DLocke09) March 31, 2017
And of all the guys who have missed significant time, the one who has perhaps had the most disappointing season given that even when he’s been in action he’s looked less than formidable, has been Derrick Favors.
Favors has missed games on and off since the start of the season as he’s dealt with knee soreness dating back to the NBA preseason. Most recently, he’s missed 14 straight games with his last contest coming on March 6th against the New Orleans Pelicans. Beyond that, despite the fact that Favors averaged 16.4 points last season, he’s recorded games of 16 points or more just eight times this season out of 47 total games played.
Related Story: Will the Utah Jazz Be Healthy Come Playoff Time?
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that all season long fans have oft wondered, “What would this team look like with a fully healthy Derrick Favors?” We saw glimmers of what he’s capable of last season and if that same skill set had been able to transfer over to this year, there’s no telling just how scary the Jazz would be.
Fortunately, there is a bit of good news on the injury front for the Jazz despite the recent onslaught of sidelined players that most recently includes George Hill, Rodney Hood and Raul Neto. That news is that rather than being listed as “out” as he has been for the last several games, as of this morning Favors has been listed as questionable for tonight’s contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
In other words, depending on how he’s feeling and looks in shootaround, there’s a shot that Favors could be back in action tonight.
George Hill is doubtful for tomorrow, Derrick Favors, Raul Neto, and Rodney Hood are questionable.
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 6, 2017
The most glaring downside to this is that this wouldn’t be Derrick’s first return from injury this season by any means. And each time he’s come back following a battle with a knee issue, he’s looked ineffective and has quickly returned to sitting out for a number of games.
Thus it’s hard to get too excited, but there’s still always the hope that this time it will be for real and that Derrick Favors will finally be back for good following this long-anticipated return. There’s also somewhat more of a reason for optimism, as according to a report from the Deseret News’ Jody Genessy, Favors was among a group of six Jazz players who participated in a game of three-on-three after yesterday’s practice.
While this of course doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be ready to go full bore in a competitive five-on-five contest against an opposing NBA squad, it’s still good to hear any time there’s evidence of Derrick progressing and participating in basketball activities.
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Thus although Favors’ status for tonight’s game is certainly still in question, it’s exciting to know that he at least appears to be on the upswing and the fact that he has yet to be ruled out for tomorrow’s contest does provide some optimism that he could indeed play.
If such ends up being the case, hopefully we’ll see a Derrick Favors that at least somewhat resembles Utah’s incredible starting power forward from a year ago.