Hawks second-year wing De’Andre Hunter missed the first two games of the team’s round two series with the 76ers with right knee swelling. After an MRI, the initial review revealed a small tear of the lateral meniscus, according to a team press release. Hunter is scheduled to fly to Los Angeles for surgery on Tuesday. He will miss the remainder of the postseason.
This will be the second surgery on Hunter’s right knee this season, and marks the end of an injury-ravaged sophomore year in the NBA. Hunter had started the year playing the best basketball of his young career, but was injured just 19 games into the season. He finished the year having only played 23 games.
After a promising return during the Hawks’ first round series against the Knicks, Hunter was once again on the injury report, due to knee swelling. This diagnosis puts to rest any hope of Hunter returning during the playoffs.
With fellow second-year wing Cam Reddish still recovering from an injured Achilles, the Hawks will have to rely on more minutes from veteran wings Danilo Gallinari, Solomon Hill and Tony Snell.
Hawks miss
5th man Hunter
9th man Reddish
10th man Kris Dunn
Will play 11th man Hill and 12th man Snell
Cam definitely isn’t a 9th man. He was our starting 2guard to start the season. Snell & Hill both way more important than Dunn this yr as well
Where you start doesn’t dictate where you finish. For the numbers Reddish put up this season, he shouldn’t even be considered for a playoff rotation of a team looking to win.
that’s rough
Isn’t that the same injury Embiid has?
Yes and no. His is a lateral meniscus but not through and through and no loose body. All meniscus tears aren’t equal.
Two meniscus surgeries in a year for a young guy isn’t good. Too bad. He’s a good young 2 way player. Hopefully, he can put it behind him.
Hopefully he can get better and avoid the “injury prone” label. He seems like he might become a really good player if he can stay healthy.
Injuries may benefit the Hawks LT if they can lock him and Cam up cheaper. By the time they are in their 2nd contract this team could be a title contender in the East.
This is horrible news no doubt. We’re MUCH better with Dre, on both sides of the court. This makes the return of Cam Reddish extremely important. Hopefully Cam is ready for game3, even if he’s on a minutes restriction. The only slightly good news in this situation is that Bogdan has played much better without Dre in the lineup this season & we’re gonna need the best version of Bogi to have a chance to win the East.
Ouch !!!! El Gallo time….
What’s interesting is that I remember seeing/hearing a couple of random reports about people being worried about some sort of wear and tear on Hunters knees before he was drafted. Didnt seem to hold that much credibility. Wonder if this stuff this year is an outlier or somehow related to that
Maybe it’s just his look, that he seems to often have a pained expression, but even in the college finals, he did not play to par or look for his shots or look happy after.
His UVA coach strongly favored making sure defense-and-toughness was prioritized, like the TexasTech HC, or like Calhoun vs Stevens. That could rule out using energy for scoring if injuries had him making choices.
That is wild speculation, but there could be blowback for Tony Bennett, who is similar to Brad Stevens or Jay Wright, though I haven’t heard NBA rumors about him. Bennett might be too tough for the pros, like Calhoun or Beilein. I think Stevens is too.
Or the injury is minor— just poorly timed!