Hornets wing Kon Knueppel, one of the early frontrunners for Rookie of the Year, suffered a right ankle injury late in the second quarter of Friday’s game in Orlando and was ruled out for the second half of the eventual win, the team announced (via Twitter). Knueppel appeared to come down on Desmond Bane‘s foot after contesting a floater near the basket, causing him to roll his ankle (Twitter video link).
Head coach Charles Lee said after the game that X-rays on Knueppel’s ankle were negative, tweets Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Rockets big man Alperen Sengun is dealing with left calf tightness and is listed as questionable for Saturday’s contest vs. Cleveland, according to the NBA’s official injury report (hat tip to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com). The 23-year-old was also questionable for Thursday’s game at the Lakers prior to being upgraded to available. Sengun made his first All-Star appearance in 2024/25 and there’s a good chance he’ll be in the exhibition game again in 2025/26 if he maintains his current level of production. Through 26 games, the Turkish center is averaging 22.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 block in 35.6 minutes per contest.
- Former All-Star point guard De’Aaron Fox, who had a huge first half on Thursday in leading the Spurs to their third straight victory over Oklahoma City, is questionable for Saturday’s game vs. Utah due to left adductor tightness, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Fox had appeared in each of San Antonio’s past 22 games after missing the first eight contests of the season with a hamstring injury.
- While Shams Charania of ESPN reported that Anthony Davis is expected to miss multiple games with a mild right groin strain, the Mavericks have listed the five-time All-NBA forward/center as questionable for Saturday’s matchup at Sacramento with right adductor soreness, per Marc Stein (Twitter link). Davis exited Thursday’s loss at Golden State after experiencing groin spasms. The hip adductor muscles are part of the medial (middle) thigh and injuries to the area are often called groin strains.
- The Heat will be cautious with Bam Adebayo‘s injury, head coach Erik Spoelstra said ahead of Friday’s game vs. Atlanta, which the star big man missed due to lower back soreness. “I think if we handle it now, he’ll be fine,” Spoelstra said after Friday morning’s shootaround, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “He’s pretty sore.” Miami had lost eight of its past nine games entering Friday, but bounced back with a decisive victory over the struggling Hawks.
Sengun is a lock for the All-Star, as a matter of fact I would say he’s just about knocking on the doors of the first All-NBA team just now.
I have him as the 6th best player of the season so far.
When it comes to the NBA why don’t you just rename the articles as Injury Updates as opposed to Trade Rumors? I’m being serious. The ratio has gotta be at least 25 injury updates to 1 trade rumor. Even in the middle of summer those articles are mostly injury updates. Football and hockey are full on contact sports and those guys don’t get hurt with anywhere near the frequency of these basketball…..men? I don’t follow the WNBA at all but I’d be absolutely shocked if the ladies from that league get as many calf strains and shoulder strains and other minor inflictions as the ladies in the NBA do. .
I get your point, but…There is a tight connection between health and trades. Injured players have less value and fewer teams are interested in trading for them. So, it’s kinda hard to know what to make of trade rumors without injury status updates.
I did not know what an abductor strain was until some wussy in the NBA did not play. I played through a lot of hurts.