When Baron Davis went down with a gruesome knee injury in the first round of this year's playoffs against the Heat, it was believed that he'd likely miss the entire 2012/13 season. However, Davis has been rehabbing his knee, and a source close to the veteran guard tells Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld that the 33-year-old intends to return during the 2012/13 season.
There's no chance that Davis will be ready to play by the fall, but it's not entirely out of the question that he could be healthy enough to join a team later in the year. A torn MCL and ACL typically means a recovery time of at least one year, but if Davis is able to accelerate that timetable by a month or two, he could be a candidate for a team in need of backcourt help down the stretch. As he tells HoopsWorld, he's working hard to make that a realistic scenario.
"I’m feeling good, getting there," Davis said this weekend at a Rising Stars of America fundraiser. "A lot of rehab. A lot of rehab. My summer is just consisting of rehabbing, focusing in on this foundation and these kids and doing as much good as I possibly can with my time off."
If Davis doesn't make it back in time for the end of the 2012/13 season, he'll be an unrestricted free agent again next summer.