Toronto Raptors prospect DeAndre Daniels has suffered a Jones fracture in his right foot, the team announced Friday, explaining his absence from the team’s Summer League debut in Las Vegas.
The #Raptors' 2014 second-round pick DeAndre Daniels sustained a fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot (Jones fracture).
— RaptorsMR (@RaptorsMR) July 10, 2015
A Jones fracture is the same injury Kevin Durant suffered on the eve of the 2014-15 season, costing him roughly two months. His particular fracture didn’t heal as well as hoped and he wound up back on the shelf for further maintenance. It’s a fracture of the fifth metatarsale bone, which is the last bone on the outside of your foot (that bone roughly to the bottom-outside of your baby toe), right where the shaft of the toe meets the base. It’s believed to have a higher chance of healing failure than other foot fractures, but incidences of re-injury are relatively low if the fracture is surgically repaired.
This is obviously a tough blow for Daniels, and it effectively ends his offseason. The No. 37 pick out of U-Conn as a junior last year, Daniels appeared in Summer League with the Raptors before heading off to Australia to play with Perth. Performance there is a tough translation, but Daniels, a small forward, ranked second in the league with 7.7 rebounds per game and added 14.8 points, though he shot below 40 percent from the floor and a middling 34.1 percent from outside.
All I want is a Chance
— DeAndre Daniels (@D_Daniels2) July 7, 2015
Some had talked about Daniels as a potential body to fill out the final two spots on the roster, but I really don’t see it. He was hardly on the draft radar based on his college resume, but his 7-foot-2 wingspan surely caught the Raptors’ attention for the defensive potential it portends (he also had a 3.9-percent body fat, which is Bruce Lee-esque). While he may have been able to beat out Norman Powell (I assume one of them is making it as a defensive-minded reserve wing), his more likely path to the Raptors was going to include another season overseas or a year in The 905 (ugh).
Whatever his role was set to be and wherever he was set to fill it, this is a tough news for the player and for an organization trying to see what they have in him. He may well be ready for training camp in October, but the loss of several key development months, and Summer League, is disappointing.
Heal up quick, but don’t rush this thing. With Summer League lost now, the focus should be on making sure the injury is 100 percent healed to avoid any risk of re-injury.
