McGrady to return November 18...maybe

November 9, 9:48 PMHouston Rockets ExaminerDavid Hartnett

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Remember those reports that the earliest Tracy McGrady could potentially return to the Rockets lineup would be November 23?

Seems they may have been inaccurate.

Going against the presumptive return date, Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears report that McGrady could return as early as November 18 against the Minnesota Timberwolves (a game in Minnesota).

"Excited to get back and compete at a high level again,” McGrady said in an email to Yahoo! Sports. “For a full year I had to play on one leg against the best and I couldn’t compete with anybody the way I was feeling.

"It’s gonna be a relief to get out there and play knowing what I went [through] last season and this summer."'

But as intriguing of a possibility it is to see McGrady come back, and as hard as he has been working out in Chicago to come back healthy, caution ought to be had.

Rockets’ general manager Daryl Morey released a statement Monday which seemed to put into question the likelihood McGrady returns in a little over a week.

"While we are all encouraged by the fact that Tracy’s rehabilitation has been ahead of schedule, we must remain vigilant through the next stages of his recovery,” Morey said in a statement released by the team Monday night. “No timeline has been set for his return. He will return when team doctors, officials and Tracy all agree it is best."

I’m more inclined to think the 18th of November may be a bit too soon, and there is no reason to get him back on the court too soon and either be ineffective or further injure the knee. Nevertheless, it seems that Tracy’s return is somewhat imminent, and it seems by the end of the month there is a good possibility he returns to the court. Which then allows for a good question : Who goes out of the starting lineup? Or is Tracy the sixth man?