DECEMBER 11: Hood underwent successful surgery today to repair his ruptured left Achilles tendon, the Blazers announced in a press release. While the club didn’t provide a timeline for his recovery, it’s a safe bet that he’ll miss at least the rest of the 2019/20 season, as noted below.
DECEMBER 7: Rodney Hood will miss the rest of the regular season after tearing his left Achilles tendon Friday night, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN.
The Trail Blazers‘ swingman suffered the injury in the first quarter of a game against the Lakers while battling for a rebound with JaVale McGee. Hood grabbed the ball, then fell to the court in pain. He was helped to the locker room, where an MRI confirmed the damage.
“I’m very sad,” coach Terry Stotts said. “Very disappointed for Rodney, who was having a good year for us. I hate for anybody to have an injury like that takes them out for the season. So I feel for him.”
Hood had started all 21 games in his first full season in Portland and was averaging 11.0 points and 3.4 rebounds per night while shooting 49.3% from 3-point range. He was acquired from Cleveland at last year’s trade deadline to provide some shooting help for the playoffs.
Hood said he tweaked his Achilles during Wednesday’s game, but Stotts told Friedell that he may have hurt it even earlier. The Blazers’ medical staff cleared him to play Friday night.
“It’s tough, man,” Damian Lillard said. “You hate to see injuries in the league, period. You hate to see one of your teammates go down to an injury like that, especially a starter and somebody that was really a good person having a great season, fitting in really well with our team, a big part of what we do. You feel for him personally more than anything. Just sad to see that happen to him.”
Hood’s progress in rehab will factor into his decision on a modest $6MM player option for next year. His performance could have led to a much bigger payday, but taking the money may be the safest option if the injury threatens to sideline him into next season.
Even with Melo it’s highly unlikely the Blazers make the playoffs.
Funny how you went from saying Melo (and Dwight) were awful and won’t help their teams to “even with Melo they won’t make the playoffs”. Its almost as if the world doesn’t revolve around Rocket fans biases
Only Rockets fans know that Melo and Dwight are washed up?
Blazers weren’t going to win enough games anyway. Melo is a useful distraction in a salary-crunch year.
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Backups usually are washups. The entire Rockets bench is filled with them.
Man that sucks for him — he was off to a really nice start too shooting almost 50% from deep! At least he’s young enough (27) that he can work his way back from this next season and hopefully get his career back on track. He’s a really solid player who in my opinion could do a lot more scoring if put in a situation to do so.
Portland is on pace to field a team of injured players.
To make the playoffs the Blazers will probably have to Add Simmons and a 1st to move both Hood and Collins to bring in reinforcements. Losing 3 key rotation players is a massive hit for sure.
Pretty sure Hood turned down bigger offers than 2/$12 to stay in Portland, where he found a good place.
Injuries and comebacks sets up Portland for a comeback year.
… Next year.
We’re seeing more and more often how players suffer season-end injuries after being cleared by the medical staff. Perhaps it’s about time to take a more conservative approach.
Perhaps it’s time for robot players