Any time your star point guard goes under the knife for surgery, it's going to send waves of panic through the fan base. The reaction around Chris Paul's recent thumb injury now that time has passed: stay calm, it isn't that bad.
As Eric Patten of NBA.com notes, Paul has been playing non-stop basketball for quite some time now. His busted thumb didn't impede his performance very much and Paul was already in line to take a bit of time off from basketball following his gold-medal performance and the impending birth of his wife's second child.
All things considered, after a whirlwind eight months that consisted of 60 regular season games, 11 playoff games, a five-game exhibition schedule with Team USA, and eight more in London, the rest may do Paul well. In effect, he took the court 84 times between Christmas and the closing ceremonies.
Paul averaged 8.3 points, 5.1 assists and 2.5 steals per game through the Olympics and didn't look at all bothered by the injury. Coach Vinny Del Negro wanted his star to get the surgery done sooner rather than later to allow time to for it to properly heal so it won't be an issue in the future.
Understandably, Clippers Nation has every right to feel a bit jittery. It is the Clippers after all, and both Blake Griffin and Paul went down with injuries sustained during Olympics practices or games. But try and tell both those players they can't suit up for the Olympics and most everyone is pretty sure what the response will be.
Paul is expected to be out for eight weeks, which calls into question Del Negro's claim he'll be ready in time for training camp since that starts in six weeks. Either way, the NBA season starts in approximately 10 weeks, so Paul should have plenty of time to get healthy.
As for all the doom, gloom, and rapture thoughts rolling through Clippers Nation - as Pattern points out: just remember your team has Paul, Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Caron Butler all on the floor at the same time. Things could be much, much worse.
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