Desmond Bane won't be back for Christmas. The Memphis Grizzlies guard, who has been out of the lineup since Nov. 11 with a sprained right big toe, will remain on the shelf for another 3-4 weeks, the team announced on Wednesday.
The full press release:
Upon reevaluation, Desmond Bane is progressing in his rehabilitation from a right big toe sprain and sesamoid injury and has been cleared to begin a gradual re-loading protocol. If the toe responds positively to the re-loading protocol, a return to play is projected in 3-4 weeks.
Bane was initially ruled out for 2-3 weeks in mid-November. He has played in 12 games this season, and he averaged 24.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists, while shooting 45.1 percent from 3-point range on 8.5 attempts per game.
Those numbers are wild. Before the injury, he was on track to make his first All-Star Game. After finishing fifth in Most Improved Player voting last season -- the award went to his teammate Ja Morant, who immediately delivered the trophy to Bane's house -- he took an arguably bigger leap. Even accounting for his minutes increase, Bane was far more productive as a playmaker than ever before.
And unlike most players who see a jump in usage, he got even more efficient. In 2021-22, Bane's usage rate jumped from 15.6 percent as a rookie to 22.4 percent, and his true shooting percentage took a slight dip, going from 60 percent to 59.2 percent. In 402 minutes this season, Bane has a usage rate of 26.5 percent and a true shooting percentage of 62.2 percent.
Last season, Bane established himself as one of the premier shooters in the league, launching 3s off the dribble and off movement at volume. Early this season, he took that to another level -- he attempted more pull-up 3s (4.6 per game) than catch-and-shoot 3s (3.8) and made the pull-ups at a higher rate (47.3 percent vs. 43.5 percent).
With Bane on the court, the Grizzlies have scored 120.5 points per 100 possessions -- this is in the neighborhood of the Boston Celtics' offense, which is currently the most efficient in NBA history -- in non-garbage-time minutes, compared to 112.1 per 100 without Bane.
All of this is to say that Memphis misses Bane dearly and would love for his toe to heal as quickly as possible. The Grizzlies are deep, though, and do-everything wing John Konchar is precisely the kind of player any team would like to be able to plug into the starting lineup when a star is sidelined. After losing their first four of five games without Bane, they have won six of their last seven.
On the season, Memphis is 16-9, tied for the second-best record in the West, just half a game behind the first-place New Orleans Pelicans in the standings. The Grizzlies have the seventh-best point differential in the league in non-garbage-time minutes, per Cleaning The Glass. Not bad, considering Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. have played zero minutes together.
