With the Atlanta Hawks losing DeMarre Carroll in free agency to the Toronto Raptors they have a big void to fill at the small forward position next season. One of the guys they expect to help fill that void is Thabo Sefolosha who missed the end of the 2014-15 season with a broken leg and ligament damage he suffered in an incident with the police last season. The expected timetable at the time of the injury was six months and Sefolosha is reportedly on track to return at that point according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The end of the sixth month period would bring Sefolosha back in the middle of training camp which would give him plenty of time to ramp up activities and be ready for the start of the regular season. Despite the initially reported timetable and his recovery going well Sefolosha is not ready to say when he will be back on the court.
"I am doing better every day, the leg and ankle are feeling good but it is too early to say exactly when I'll be back on the court," said Sefolosha.
With Carroll now gone the 31 year old Sefolosha is very important to the Hawks next season. He is expected to take Carroll's starting spot at small forward and although he won't be able to provide as much offensively, he will be able to do just as much defensively.
Sefolosha has been in the league for ten years now and has never averaged more than 7.6 points per game in a single season but he stays in the league because of his defensive prowess and his ability to hit threes (35 percent three point shooter for his career.)
Sefolosha was actually in the midst of his best NBA season last year, in terms of PER, before he was injured. The Switzerland native played in 52 games and averaged 5.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per game. Sefolosha's minutes should go up next season as a starter and with that so should his productivity. If Sefolosha is unable to prove he is healthy the Hawks backup plans at small forward would be Kent Bazemore, Tim Hardaway Jr., or Justin Holiday.
