The New Orleans Pelicans have announced that point guard Jrue Holiday will miss the remainder of the season. Holiday reportedly suffered a fracture to his right inferior orbital wall. The injury occurred with less than a minute to play in Monday night’s game against the New York Knicks. The Pelicans won the game 98-91.
Pelicans Jrue Holiday Out For The Rest Of The Season
This season, Holiday has averaged 16.8 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds per game—a very good showing from the guard taken out of UCLA in 2009. Holiday is a six-year veteran in the Association.
Holiday is the latest in a long list of injuries so far this season for the Pelicans. Players such as Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon and star player Anthony Davis are all done for the season. The list goes go on to include role players, but one can sum up the Pelicans injury bug with two interesting facts: So far this season, Pelicans’ players have missed a huge total of 262 games through injury, and the team has been forced into using 36 different line-ups, which is a league high.
Holiday isn’t the only Pelican to be told his season is over today, as forward Alonzo Gee has been diagnosed with a ruptured right quad. Gee is a solid contributor off the bench for the team and has averaged 4.5 points and 3.4 rebounds this season.
Also in minor news for Pelicans fans, power forward Ryan Anderson will miss some time with a sports hernia. Further details on Anderson’s situation will be released later this week after the forward is further evaluated. Anderson should be healthy before the end of the season but will most likely be shut down by head coach Alvin Gentry.
The Pelicans have already been eliminated from playoff contention, and the team’s management will certainly need to take a long hard look at itself in the offseason. Remember this was a team that was expected to make the playoffs this year before injuries destroyed their hopes. GM Dell Demps may need to consider shaking up his squad for next year. The Pelicans currently hold too many players who always seem on the cusp on injury, and are starting to garner the sometimes unfair tag “injury prone”.
Expect changes this summer Pelicans fans. But don’t fret, change is certainly needed.
