Remember when a torn ACL meant the end of a basketball career?
Those days appear to be well out of range of the rearview mirror, as star after star are making their return from a plethora of serious injuries faster and faster in the modern NBA.
On Tuesday night, ex-Hawk Dejounte Murray made his debut this season after tearing his ACL just over a calendar year ago. Many had speculated that he would miss the entirety of this season, but Dejounte was determined to get back on the court.
Besides Dejounte, Jayson Tatum just took part in a full-contact, 5-on-5 scrimmage for the Boston Celtics, according to Shams Charania. Tatum's recovery is even more of a spectacle to behold than Dejounte's. While Murray missed just over 12 months before returning, Tatum is on track to return after a torn Achilles in just 10 months.
Not only is this recovery period completely unprecedented, but it's a bit on the cautious end. Tatum has been seen practicing with contact for nearly a month and has been given the luxury of a delayed return thanks to the Celtics' baffling record of 38-19, good for 2nd in the East.
Kyrie Irving, injured around the same time as Dejounte last year, was also rumored to have been able to return as early as December of this year. Had the Mavericks not pivoted to full-tank mode, it's quite likely we would have seen Irving exhibit a similar return timeline to DJ's or Tatum's, which would have been especially impressive considering his age.
The proof is in the pudding; the Hawks should be bold in the draft
The 2026 NBA Draft is absolutely chock-full of talent. The consensus big 3 (Cam Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, and Darryn Peterson, in addition to the dynamic 4th-overall mocked Caleb Wilson) could each be first overall picks in nearly any draft in the last decade.
Amongst these top prospects lies one outlier - Darryn Peterson. If the Hawks luck into the first overall pick during this May's lottery, Peterson is the obvious pick - save for one caveat.
Peterson has battled with lingering injuries this year for the Kansas Jayhawks. Despite being head and shoulders the best raw talent in the NCAA, he's slipped to a three-way tie with Boozer and Dybantsa, who have stayed on the court far more consistently.
In this era of modern sports medicine, these types of injuries shouldn't deter the Hawks (or any team, for that matter) from shying away from drafting this generational talent at 1. After all, if Tatum, Murray, and Irving can return from ACL injuries in around a year's time, just imagine what can be achieved in the next 5-10 years alone for prospects like Peterson.