Deandre Ayton Out at Least 4 Weeks With Left Calf Strain

Ayton suffered the injury during the Trail Blazers' Monday blowout loss in Denver.

📸: Soobum Im, Getty Images

📍DENVER — Heading into the All-Star break, the Trail Blazers were dealt a major injury blow with the announcement that starting center Deandre Ayton will miss at least four weeks after suffering a left calf strain in Monday’s blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets.

The four-week timeline would have Ayton missing the Blazers’ next 13 games, meaning the earliest he could return would be March 16 at home against the Toronto Raptors. However, it would not be a surprise if Ayton misses more time than that. When a team says a player will be “re-evaluated” after a certain time period, that doesn’t mean they will return then. In the best-case scenario if his calf heals as planned, Ayton could be cleared to resume on-court activity in four weeks, and then will need another week or two to ramp up before either he or the team’s medical staff are comfortable with him playing in a game again.

Depending on where the Blazers’ season is at that point—whether they’re still hanging around the back of the play-in race or are back in the mix for the top of the lottery—they may not be in a rush for him to return on the early side of the timeline they’ve given.

Ayton’s absence, and Robert Williams III’s day-to-day status with right knee soreness and the team’s generally careful approach to Williams’ playing time given his injury history, likely mean Donovan Clingan will be the Blazers’ starting center for the foreseeable future. Clingan had his best offensive game of his rookie season in Monday’s loss, scoring a career-high 21 points on 8-of-8 shooting.