Jared Sullinger will miss the remainder of the season because of a metatarsal stress fracture in his left foot, according to the Celtics’ Twitter feed. The power forward injured his foot against the Hawks on February 11th.
During his time in the NBA, Sullinger has missed time due to a sore knee in 2013, as well as a sore ankle and a concussion in 2014. The Ohio State product also missed games in college because of a back injury and it caused scouts to believe that Sullinger’s career could be shortened because of the ailment. The forward is making slightly more than $1.42MM this season and will earn slightly under $2.27MM next season. The latest injury does not help his cause to see a hefty raise on those figures when he becomes a restricted free agent after the 2015/16 season, although that is just my speculation.
Sullinger was averaging 14.4 points and 28.7 minutes per game this season, both career highs. The Celtics are 20-32 on the season but sit only one and a half games behind the Nets for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. The injury leaves the Celtics with a void in their frontcourt but I would speculate that the team will increase Tyler Zeller‘s role and new addition Jonas Jerebko‘s minutes rather than sign a free agent to fill the void. The deadline to apply for a disabled player exception passed last month, but the timing is even worse for Sullinger, who’s up for a rookie scale extension in the offseason.