The Denver Nuggets will be without one half of its star frontcourt pairing for the foreseeable future. Paul Millsap, the team’s major acquisition from this past offseason, will be out indefinitely as he opted to undergo surgery on his injured wrist. The news of surgery was broken by Yahoo’s Shams Charania.
Denver All-Star forward Paul Millsap will undergo surgery on his left wrist and be sidelined indefinitely, league sources say.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 21, 2017
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Millsap can miss up to three months due to the surgery.
Denver Nuggets forward Paul Millsap's surgery will be to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist and could sideline him for three months, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 21, 2017
Millsap suffered the injury over the weekend during the Nuggets’ 127-109 loss to the Lakers. He played 13 minutes against Los Angeles before leaving the game. While x-rays came back negative, the All-Star forward’s injury is still bad enough to keep him sidelined for an undetermined period of time.
It’s a brutal loss for the Nuggets, which are in a tie for fourth in the Western Conference with a 10-7 mark on the season. Millsap and Nikola Jokic are one of the NBA’s most entertaining frontcourt pairings, and the fact that half of that group might not see the floor again until February is really unfortunate for a fun Denver squad.
If there is any good news, it’s that Denver will likely need to ask Jokic to shoulder more of a load while Millsap is out, and Jokic having to do more is never a bad thing. Plus is Wojnarowski’s timeline ends up being accurate, Millsap should still be back for the stretch run and the postseason. All that matters now is that the Nuggets can stay in the postseason hunt long enough for that to matter.
