This wouldn't qualify as much of an update for any other injury for any other player, but since we've heard very little about Otto Porter's mysterious hip injury that began as a day-to-day thing and has now kept him off the court for over two months, we have to stretch the definition of "update."
Before yesterday's Raptors game, Randy Wittman was asked about the status of his injured players. Here's what he had to say about Porter, via Michael Lee of the Washington Post:
Chris Singleton has been out with late September with a broken left foot but Wittman said he could also be back practicing soon. Otto Porter Jr., who has also been out for nearly two months, is still slowly recovering from a strained right hip flexor. "Chris is probably a lot closer than Otto is," Wittman said, when asked for a timetable. But he couldn't get specific with Porter. "Again, it's still don't know much on that. It's just a matter of doctors giving him the clearance."
"A lot closer," huh? You'll recall that Singleton broke his foot -- again, broke his foot -- right before training camp in late September. It was originally supposed to be a 6-8-week injury, and we're now on week 7. Porter, meanwhile, initially strained his hip flexor in a pickup game before training camp and he's still out. What's going on here?
Hip flexor strains vary, of course. David Lee suffered one in the playoffs last year and somehow returned by the second round. Carl Landry, meanwhile, had surgery on his torn hip flexor in October and is expected to miss 3-4 months. The simplest explanation is often the right one. In this case, the simplest explanation is Porter's body just responded poorly to whatever ails him.
But we're now past month two on an injury that was initially seen as "day to day." Is it more severe than the Wizards are letting on? Is Porter babying it? Are the Wizards doctors babying it, as John Thompson III suggested recently? Was it misdiagnosed?
In the absence of information, this kind of speculation steps into the power vacuum and fills our brains. It doesn't really do Porter or the team any good to be so vague about this injury.
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