The Memphis Grizzlies gave Chandler Parsons a whole lot of money this past offseason. Memphis signed Parsons to a four-year max contract, which caused a whole lot of people to raise their eyebrows, both because there were questions about whether Parsons’ play warranted this and because Parsons had dealt with knee injuries in the past.
As it turns out, both of those reasons for skepticism have been validated this year. Parsons has struggled to stay healthy, and when he plays, it’s been rough – he’s averaging 6.2 points in 19.9 minutes a game, and he’s taken the floor 34 times this season. Also, this season may be over, because Parsons suffered a partially torn meniscus in his left knee.
“To suffer a setback like this after working so diligently to rebound from the injury to his right knee is obviously tough,” Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace said in a statement. “That said, we know he will continue to work tirelessly to return to the court with his teammates and contribute. Chandler has the full support of myself, Coach Fizz and the entire team and we are all focused on getting him healthy.”
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported that this will likely be the third year in a row that Parsons’ season will end after undergoing a surgical procedure (each of the last two years, it was due to a procedure on his right knee). Parsons is talented enough that he can maybe bounce back next year, but if not, at least we’ll always have the memory of Joel Embiid ruthlessly trolling him on social media for some reason.
UPDATE: The Grizzlies have officially announced that Parsons will be sidelined for the rest of the year.
In a release, the team said that further testing was performed on Parsons, and it was determined that he will have a procedure done on March 20 to fix a partial tear of the medial meniscus in his left knee. There is no word on Parsons’ timeline to return to basketball, but considering how his 2016-17 season went, he will be under some serious pressure to live up to the big contract he signed with the Grizzlies this past offseason.
