An Update on Robert Covington (Finally!)

It’s been what feels like an eternity since Robert Covington was on the floor for the Wolves, and it feels equally as long since we’ve had a real, meaningful update on his status.

This morning, we finally got one.

So, this should hint at a return in the somewhat near future for Mr. Covington. In terms of how soon we could realistically see him back, we can make a relatively educated guess.

The Iowa Wolves don’t have another game until Sunday, March 3rd. This suggests RoCo is simply headed to Iowa to get in the flow of practicing again and to work on his conditioning. It’s unlikely he would’ve used the G-League to get back into any game action anyways, but this definitely confirms that.

The Wolves, on the other hand, are on the road until Tuesday, March 5th. Not to jump to conclusions, but that would seem like a reasonable return date. It’s felt like forever since we had any meaningful update on Covington that I could be looking too far into this and maybe he will be out longer, but that feels like sound logic to me.

Between now and then, Minnesota has three road games against Atlanta, Indy, and Washington. Assuming they win two of three, they’d be sitting at 31-32 with 19 games left.

Whether or not RoCo will be in good enough shape to propel this team to a legitimate playoff push down the stretch remains to be seen. Even if he can just give the Wolves about 80-85% of his pre-injury production that would be a huge boost.

This could get more interesting down the stretch than originally expected, especially with the teams ahead of the Wolves currently stumbling. San Antonio and the Lakers have each won only 3 of their last 10 games. Minnesota just beat Sacramento, who has to play Milwaukee tonight. The Western Conference playoff race is going to go down the wire again. With RoCo back in the fold, the Wolves might find themselves in the same position as last year fighting to sneak into the playoffs until the very end.