Charlotte Hornets Wing Nicolas Batum to Miss Six to Eight Weeks With Injured Elbow
Teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) tend to limit the minutes of their key players in the preseason because they don't want them to get hurt while playing a meaningless exhibition game before the regular season starts. Unfortunately, sometimes the minutes played does not matter because players can get hurt at any time.
In Nicolas Batum's case, he didn't even last a minute on the court.
The versatile wing injured his left arm in the opening minute of their preseason game against the Detroit Pistons last Wednesday, and after undergoing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan on Thursday, it was revealed that he has a torn ligament in his left elbow. The team has announced that he's expected to miss a minimum of six to eight weeks of action while he recovers from the injury.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"He just got tangled up. It was one of those kind of contact/collision plays where his arm got stuck between two guys," Hornets head coach Steve Clifford told the Charlotte Observer.
Batum will visit a specialist in Dallas on Monday, Oct. 9, to see if he will need to undergo surgery to repair the damage on his elbow.
"It's going to be long, but not that long. If it were my shooting arm, it would be a lot longer. At max, it's three months," Batum said, according to the Charlotte Observer.
This is a huge blow for the team because Batum is a veritable Swiss army knife on the court due to his ability to score, defend, rebound and handle the ball. He usually takes some of the ball-handling pressure off Kemba Walker.
With him on the sidelines, Jeremy Lamb is expected to start at the two guard position and rookie Malik Monk will get the opportunity to play significant minutes right away.
"Obviously, it's disappointing; Nic was having such a good offseason. But that's why you have a 14- or 15-man roster. Jeremy has had a good summer. Now is his opportunity to expand on that," Clifford stated, via the Charlotte Observer.
