Indiana Pacers: Positive injury updates on Brogdon, Turner, and Warren

Indiana Pacers’ point guard Malcolm Brogdon, after practicing on Feb. 23rd, says he expects to play in Friday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

He has an injury history throughout his career and has only played more than 60 games just in just two of his six seasons in the NBA.

Malcolm Brogdon’s injury issues have kept him out of many games since becoming an Indiana Pacer. In his three seasons here, he has yet to play more than 60 games.

Malcolm Brogdon looks to rejoin the retooled Indiana Pacers roster this Friday after missing much time this season. Myles Turner is expected to return sometime after the break as well.

On Dec. 16th, 2021, we first heard the news of Brogdon missing time with an Achilles injury, which of course is not something to take lightly. Since then, he has only made an appearance in three games, only one in which he played more than 20 minutes.

He has only played in 28 games this season so far.

The Indiana Pacers didn’t have much incentive to rush Brogdon back to the court, with the trades they had made and the record they hold, the risk to reward just wasn’t there. Now that he’s had ample time off to rehab, he feels ready to go.

Truly the main positive at this point in the season of seeing Brogdon return to action is how he fits within the new roster that Indiana is trying to build. Without many updates before the All-Star break, the Pacers announced they would shut Brogdon down for at least 10 days in late January.

"“Malcolm’s going to be shut down for 10 days at minimum to begin a program to aggressively rehab his Achilles situation,” Carlisle said. “We’ve just gotten to a point where we haven’t made the progress that we need to make”.“He’ll be doing things to get stronger, to build it up, and we can now do it without the distraction of whether he’s feeling well enough to play this game or the next game or the next game,” Carlisle said."

It seems that the time off paid dividends to Brogdon’s health. Brogdon has previously been listed as questionable for some games, then as out for others. After missing 15 straight games with this injury, Brogdon expects to return to action.

We will finally get the chance to see Brogdon paired alongside Tyrese Haliburton for the first time. This is the first time we see Brogdon in action since Jan. 19th.

Prior to injuring his Achilles, Brogdon averaged 19.7 points per game and 6.2 assists while shooting 31.3% from behind the arc.

Tyrese Haliburton now has 22 more games of growth in this new system and the chance to play alongside staple pieces in Chris Duarte and Isaiah Jackson, assuming their health stays.

The possibility of Haliburton sharing the court with the core of Brogdon, Turner, and Warren is now more possible than it was before All-Star weekend.

Injury updates

Turner is still weeks away from a return according to Rick Carlisle. Isaiah Jackson however was a full participant in practice and should be good to go for Friday’s game as well. Chris Duarte did not practice with a sore toe.

T.J. Warren was a majority participant as well but has no timeline, James Boyd reports.

Seeing what Myles can do with a Tyrese Haliburton and a Buddy Heild to space the floor while he handles the five could be exactly what Turner wants.

If all of these players can return to action this season, the Pacers might add start adding to the win column.