By now the Blake Griffin story has been told over and over agai,n and if you haven't heard it you're living under a rock. The questions surrounding Griffin and the Los Angeles Clippers now are about their next move. There have been rumblings that the Clippers would be willing to trade Griffin if it got them back another star, but that is unlikely to happen this season. In the near future the Clippers have to worry about when they will get Griffin back on the floor, and it is looking like that will be late March at the earliest, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN.
After Griffin broke his hand punching equipment staffer and close friend Matias Testi in the face, he was given a 4-6 week timetable to return. Since that initial timetable was released, head coach Doc Rivers called that quick of a turnaround "unrealistic" and said he expects him to miss more time, according to Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times.
It seems as though Rivers is on point with that estimation, because many on the Clippers reportedly believe he will miss at least two full months. If Griffin were to miss two months that would put him back on the court toward the end of March in the best case scenario. The end of March is the very end of the regular season and would give Griffin just two weeks to get back into the swing of things before the playoffs begin. This is all assuming there are no setbacks and the hand heals properly. It still remains a possibility that Griffin could miss even more time than that and possibly the rest of the season.
On top of the time Griffin will have missed with a hand injury, it should not be forgotten that he missed time before that with a partially torn quad. That injury is likely fully healed by now, but he hasn't played in a game since Christmas. Even when Griffin's hand is fully healed and he is ready to come back, he still might be facing a suspension from the league. The Clippers hope to hear from the NBA about any suspension soon, but the league is taking its time and nothing is imminent, according to Bolch.
This entire situation has been a complete mess for everyone involved, and it has hurt the Clippers the most. A once promising season now looks like it's destined to end after maybe one round of the playoffs, and it's all because Griffin made a bad decision. We will just have to wait to see how the hand heals and what the NBA decides in terms of punishment for the 26-year-old forward.
