WASHINGTON — After Trae Young and Anthony Davis received medical reevaluations in recent days, Washington Wizards officials said Thursday in a news release that Young is “progressing positively,” and Davis is “progressing as expected.”
Young now will increase his on-court work, said Wizards officials, who added that they’ll provide an additional update in one week. Young, who last played on Dec. 27 while he was with the Atlanta Hawks, has been held out, Wizards officials have said, because of a right knee MCL sprain and a right quadriceps contusion.
Davis suffered ligament damage in his left hand on Jan. 8, while playing for the Dallas Mavericks, and hasn’t played since.
Wizards officials said Steven Shin, a Los Angeles-based orthopedic surgeon who specializes in treating athletes’ hand and upper-limb injuries, conducted Davis’ reevaluation. Davis is not cleared for basketball activities and will be reevaluated in two weeks, Wizards officials said.
Asked late Thursday afternoon whether he’s optimistic that Young and Davis will play again this season, Wizards coach Brian Keefe answered: “You just follow the process. That’s what we always do: Just stick to that. Obviously, we’re going to reevaluate Trae in one week (and) Anthony here in two weeks. But I just go day by day. Those are the things I focus on.”
The Wizards traded for Young, a four-time All-Star point guard, in early January. The Wizards traded for Davis, a 10-time All-Star big man, and several Mavericks players in the days leading up to this season’s Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline.
The updates on Young and Davis arrive at a time when discussion about the NBA’s tanking epidemic has reached a fever pitch, with NBA commissioner Adam Silver acknowledging during All-Star Weekend that the league is seeing tanking behavior that is worse this year than it has been in recent memory.
The Wizards opened their post-All-Star schedule Thursday night with the league’s second-worst record, 14-39, by hosting the Indiana Pacers, who had the league’s fourth-worst record at 15-40.
Washington is several years into a full teardown rebuild — a rebuild that is on track to turn around next season, when Young and Davis are expected to be the top veterans on a team that features a young nucleus that includes Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George, Bilal Coulibaly, Tre Johnson, Bub Carrington, Will Riley and others.
The Wizards hope that an early lottery pick will join that nucleus this offseason, but the team owes a top-eight protected 2026 first-round pick to the New York Knicks. The Wizards would lose the pick if it falls from No. 9 to No. 30.