The Star-Ledger is reporting that the Nets are going to have to live without Devin Harris for at least the next 7-10 days as he’s now on his way to see a specialist in Chicago regarding his strained groin, which he originally suffered during a preseason game on October 13.
Harris, as quoted in Dave D’Alessandro’s report:
“It was never really all the way gone,” Harris said of the discomfort. “It was according to where I felt I had to be effective, and obviously be able to get to the spots that I need to get to on the court. The way I was playing (Friday) night — not be able to get to spots on the floor or beat my guy off the dribble — that’s something I can’t contend with.”
Obviously, Rafer Alston, who was pretty effective last night in the team’s awful loss to the Wizards, will man the point in Devin’s absence. Terrence Williams appears to have the nod backing up Alston, as the team is still without Keyon Dooling until at least the end of the month.
The fact that this is the original injury that hampered Harris in the preseason is a bit alarming to me. I was originally under the impression that the injury was one of those “we’ll rest you because these games don’t count” kind of injuries, but that’s clearly not the case if he tried to give it a go and couldn’t. For a “star” player, Devin tends to get a lot of these little tweaks and strains and he seems to have difficulty playing through the pain in an effective way. He was clearly struggling in the season’s first two games with both his jump shoot and his defense. Unfortunately, a groin strain strikes me as one of those injuries that tends to linger longer than it should. That, combine with ESPN’s John Hollinger’s recent interesting take on Devin’s second-half slide last season, and I wonder if Nets fans should maybe temper their enthusiasm in what kind of player they truly have in Devin Harris.
