Al-Farouq Aminu, the Trail Blazers’ starting small forward, will be sidelined for the next two or three weeks due to a sprained right ankle, writes Mike Richman of The Oregonian. The club has confirmed the diagnosis and the timeline.
Aminu, 27, had been off to a solid start this season, averaging 9.4 PPG and a career-high 8.1 RPG through eight games. He was also knocking down three-pointers at a career-high rate, making 1.6 per game with a .433 3PT%.
“It’s tough,” Damian Lillard said of his teammate on Thursday. “Chief (Aminu) is a huge part of our team. He does a lot of things that might not get mentioned all the time, might not show up on the stat sheet, but he’s as big a part of our team as just about anybody. Whatever the situation might be somebody’s going to have to step up and we’re going to have to figure out a way to get some wins.”
While Aminu will be sidelined until later in November, the Blazers did get another injured power forward, Noah Vonleh, back this week. Vonleh shifted into the starting lineup for Portland on Thursday in what was just his second game of the season.
Rookies Caleb Swanigan and Zach Collins also could see a bump in playing time during Aminu’s absence, while Maurice Harkless may see more minutes at power forward, Richman writes.