The Indiana Pacers are already dealing with two major losses from last season in Lance Stephenson due to free agency and Paul George with a broken leg, but they might be without power forward David West for some time as well. He suffered an ugly sprained ankle in Indiana’s preseason game on Saturday night against the Dallas Mavericks.
According to a report from Autumn Allison of the Indianapolis Star, West will undergo an MRI on his ankle to find out the severity of the sprain.
Indiana is already looking shaky enough as far as the playoffs are concerned, but losing West for any amount of time during the regular season would make their chances even less likely. West is going to be the Pacers’ most consistent offensive threat, and will also be their emotional and vocal leader. Without him, they are going to have a difficult time scoring.
Hopefully the ankle injury isn’t too serious and West will only miss the remainder of preseason action. If he has a sever ankle sprain, that could force him to miss some regular season action, and could be a nagging injury throughout the course of the season with the ankle being weaker than usual.
West played in and starting 80 regular season games last season with the Pacers, averaging 14.0 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. At the age of 34, he doesn’t have too terribly much time playing at the high level that he has throughout the majority of his career. There has been quite a bit of speculation this past offseason that the Pacers could look to trade West for some type of value if they aren’t competing at the trade deadline.
Needless to say, this is a very scary injury for the Pacers and their chances during the 2014-15 season. There will be more news about the severity of this injury in the near future, but until then the Pacers and their fans are stuck waiting. West is one of the toughest players in the league, but this injury could put him on the bench for a good amount of time.
UPDATE
David West has been ruled out for the remainder of the preseason according to a report from Autumn Allison, and will not travel with the team. He is in a walking boot and using a cane to help him walk. There have been no reports yet as to whether or not he will miss any regular season time, but he is certainly in danger of doing just that.
West told reporters that he expects to be ready for the season opener on Oct. 29.
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) October 20, 2014