Jonas Valanciunas will be sidelined for six weeks as he rehabilitates a fractured fourth metacarpal in his left hand, according to a report from Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.
This is a huge blow to the Toronto Raptors, who entered the season with depth questions at the center position. Bismack Biyombo will be over-exposed in starter’s minutes, Lucas Nogueira is still largely unproven (he was recalled from the D-League yesterday), and the team could be forced into using some very creative lineups to get by. You can read more about the rotation fallout from the injury here.
Valanciunas broke the finger in the second quarter of Friday’s game against the Lakers. X-rays revealed the break and after further tests, Valanciunas reportedly opted to rehabilitate the injury rather than undergo surgery. You can check out his comments on the injury here.
The timeline for recovery suggests this is a bit of a worst-case scenario for a fractured finger. There was some optimism that because the fracture was on the index finger of his non-shooting hand, he may not be out too long. That’s obviously not the case, and the Raptors will be without their starting center for a quarter of the season. Six weeks covers 20 games on the schedule.
Apologies for the brief post, but the links within should provide all the additional context you need.
