Will Jaden Ivey return this season from his injury to play in the NBA playoffs with the Detroit Pistons?
That's now the big question with less than two weeks to go before the start of the first round.
The Pistons on Friday clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2019 and are likely to either be the 6-seed playing at the 3-seed New York Knicks or the 5-seed at the 4-seed Indiana Pacers. The Milwaukee Bucks are also in the mix and entered Sunday with a half-game lead over the Pistons.
Ivey has been out for more than three months since undergoing surgery a day after fracturing his left fibula — a major bone in the lower-leg — after he was upended on a loose ball play on New Year's Day.
At the time, coach J.B. Bickerstaff raised some eyebrows when he declared two days later Ivey's season was not necessarily finished.
"We’re hopeful that he’ll be back this season for sure,” Bickerstaff said.
A typical recovery for an athlete with Ivey's injury is four to six months.
“It takes usually around two-and-a-half, three months for the bone to heal completely,” Dr. Clint Soppe, a sports medicine doctor at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles and orthopedic consultant for the MLS' LA Galaxy, told the Free Press in early January. “But then to rehab all the way back takes another, you’re looking at four to six months typically."
Ivey was at Pistons shootaround — a light team session several hours before a game — on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, hoisting 3-point shots during the short portion the media was allowed to watch, as seen in the video at the top of the page.
But he has yet to be cleared for five-on-five practice, clouding his return date from a significant lower-body injury. A first-round playoff return looks ambitious at best.
The Pistons have gone
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