MKG’s dislocated shoulder could spell very bad news for the Hornets
Well, this is exactly how Charlotte Hornets fans didn’t want to start the 2015-16 season. Small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist — the No. 2 pick in the 2012 NBA draft, Charlotte’s best defensive player, whom owner Michael Jordan and general manager Rich Cho gave a four-year, $52 million contract extension this summer — suffered a dislocated right shoulder during the Hornets’ preseason opener against the Orlando Magic on Saturday.
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The injury came in the closing minute of the second quarter, with the Hornets trailing by five:
Kidd-Gilchrist took a dribble handoff on the right wing from center Al Jefferson and began to curl toward the lane. As he did, though, he lost his footing; as he slipped to the hardwood, he instinctively put out his right arm to brace himself and came down hard, fast and awkwardly on that right shoulder.
After staying down for a few moments, Kidd-Gilchrist got up holding his shoulder and immediately exited the game, being helped off the court and back to the visiting locker room. He did not return, finishing with four points, one rebound and one assist in Charlotte’s 106-100 win over the Magic. The Hornets announced Sunday that the 22-year-old Kentucky product had suffered a dislocated right shoulder:
We’ll have to wait until that follow-up evaluation to learn the extent of Kidd-Gilchrist’s injury, because shoulder dislocation can have a wide range of outcomes, as Jeff Stotts of injury-focused blog In Street Clothes wrote after Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love suffered a dislocated left shoulder during Game 4 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs back in April:
The return to play time following shoulder dislocation appears to be dependent on the amount of damage to the surrounding tissues, particularly the labrum. If the tear is small and the instability is minimal, general rehab can improve the area with a focus on improving the musculature surrounding the joint. Surgery may still be warranted down the road but it can be delayed. Still the associated pain and swelling often requires time to heal. Additionally, even if this ends up being an option for Love, the risk for re-injury would be considerable for the remainder of the postseason. A significant labrum tear would likely require immediate surgery and force Love to miss a substantial amount of time.
As previously mentioned, pinning down the specifics surrounding a potential return to play is largely dependent on what Love’s future evaluation reveals. However the numbers do not paint a particularly promising picture for Cavaliers fans. Looking through the InStreetClothes.com injury database, there have been 18 in-season injuries classified as complete dislocations. It does not include shoulder subluxations, even if the injury involved labrum damage (ie. Eric Gordon earlier this season). Only two players, Glen Davis and DeMarcus Cousins, suffered an injury reported as a dislocation and did not miss any subsequent games. After that, the best-case scenario is Channing Frye, who missed five games over a 14-day stretch of the 2010-11 season. However even that appears a bit misleading as Frye would sublux the shoulder the following season and undergo surgery on the troublesome joint in the summer of 2012.
Love’s injury, you’ll recall, required surgical repair that carried an estimated recovery period of four to six months. More than five months later, he’s back on the court with the Cavs during their preseason workouts, but he has still not yet been cleared for full contact, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group.
It would figure to be very bad news for the Hornets if MKG missed any regular-season time. Steve Clifford’s club had a 27-28 record when Kidd-Gilchrist was in the lineup last year, a winning percentage that would’ve been good for the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, and went just 6-21 when he was sidelined by an early-season stress reaction in his right foot and a late-campaign left ankle sprain; MKG missing one-third of the season was arguably the biggest single factor in the Hornets missing out on their second straight playoff berth. (I say “arguably” because Lance Stephenson would like a word.)
The damage went further than that. The Hornets outscored their opposition by 73 total points in the nearly 1,600 minutes Kidd-Gilchrist played last year, an average of 3.1 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com’s stat tool. When MKG was off the court, though, Charlotte got outscored by a whopping 333 points in just under 2,400 minutes, an average of 7.7 points-per-100. In effect, then, having MKG in the lineup was the difference between the Hornets performing like the 55-win Memphis Grizzlies and the worst-season-in-franchise-history Los Angeles Lakers.
It’s possible that this year’s model is better equipped to deal with Kidd-Gilchrist’s absence than last year’s, thanks to the presence of offseason trade additions Nicolas Batum and Jeremy Lamb on the wing alongside rising sophomore P.J. Hairston. Should Clifford slide Batum or Lamb up to the small forward spot for stretches, he could also deploy a two-point guard backcourt featuring two of Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lin and Brian Roberts, depending on the matchup.
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But with the exception of some of Batum’s more engaged work in Portland, none of those options figure to provide anything close to the defensive impact Kidd-Gilchrist offers. Despite his relatively modest statistical output (he averaged 10.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 28.9 minutes per game last season, shooting 46.5 percent from the field) and the well-known issues with his jump shot — a committed rebuild of his form led to a marked improvement in his success on midrange jumpers (from 28.4 percent two seasons ago to 39.5 percent last season), but Kidd-Gilchrist didn’t attempt a single 3-pointer last season, which further cramps the already tight spacing of the Hornets offense — MKG’s become a major difference-maker for Charlotte, thanks in large part to his penchant for giving 110 percent and going 100 miles per hour every second he steps on the court.
That’s the rub, though. If the hard-charging style leads to sizable chunks of missed time (47 games over the past two seasons, with more perhaps to come here), you wonder whether that approach — playing “with the energy of a human wrecking-ball,” as Spencer Percy of Queen City Hoops put it — can be sustainable over the long haul. Here’s hoping, for the sake of the Hornets and their fans, that Kidd-Gilchrist’s shoulder injury winds up falling on the more minor end of the scale, and we won’t have to learn just yet how this year’s club will fare without his relentless motor.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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