Blake Wesley Out Indefinitely With Right Foot Fracture
Wesley suffered the injury during Friday's win over Denver.
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Less than two weeks into the season, the Trail Blazers' backcourt is already decimated by injuries.
On the heels of losing Matisse Thybulle for four to six weeks with a thumb tear, the team announced Sunday evening that backup point guard Blake Wesley would be out indefinitely after suffering a fifth metatarsal fracture in his right foot during Friday's win over the Denver Nuggets.
With Scoot Henderson still out with the hamstring injury he suffered shortly before the start of training camp, the loss of Wesley leaves the Blazers effectively without a backup point guard behind Jrue Holiday. Two of Portland's three two-way spots are held by guards in Caleb Love and Javonte Cooke, but neither are traditional point guards. With both Wesley and Thybulle now out, expect Rayan Rupert to get more regular minutes on the wing.
On the current roster, the best available option could be for Tiago Splitter to play Deni Avdija more with the second unit as a point forward, but that's not a sustainable long-term solution. They need Henderson back, but that may not happen for a few more weeks. When he tore his left hamstring the week before camp started, the team announced he would miss four to eight weeks; this past Friday marked five weeks since that announcement. If the initial timeline is accurate, Henderson could miss three more weeks, and the Blazers have a tough schedule—10 games, five of which are against Western Conference contenders—in that time.
Wesley signed a one-year minimum deal with the Blazers over the summer after three seasons with San Antonio. Through the first six games of the season, he's been a disruptive presence on defense and fit perfectly with the team's burgeoning identity on that end. Now, he's sidelined for the foreseeable future, and the Blazers are left to patch together a solution to replace him.
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