OKC's Cameron Payne breaks bone in right foot for 2nd time this year
After joining a veteran-laden, championship-hopeful Oklahoma City Thunder squad last season, Cameron Payne earned more headlines for his pre-game dancing than for his play as a rookie. But with Oklahoma City retooling its attack after the loss of Kevin Durant, and with veteran backup point guard D.J. Augustin leaving town, the Murray State product has an opportunity to step into a larger role as a ball-handler and playmaker for coach Billy Donovan … once he gets healthy enough to safely take a step, that is.
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From Erik Horne of The Oklahoman:
Second-year Thunder guard Cameron Payne has an acute fracture in the fifth metatarsal in his right foot, the Thunder announced Thursday.
Payne suffered the injury on a drive to the basket against Josh Huestis in the first half of the Thunder’s Blue and White Scrimmage on Tuesday at John Marshall High School. On the play, Payne’s foot hit the floor, causing the fracture. […]
A timetable for Payne’s return is currently unknown. It is yet to be determined if he will travel with the Thunder to Spain for its first two preseason games.
It’s the second injury to that specific bone that the 22-year-old point guard has suffered this year, though the Thunder insists the two injuries are unrelated, according to Royce Young of ESPN.com:
Payne had surgery in late July on his right foot to repair a Jones fracture (on the same bone) and was cleared to return to play for training camp. […] His fracture in the summer was a stress fracture while this one is an impact fracture. It’s unknown as of now if Payne will undergo another surgery. He’ll be re-evaluated in the next week and a determination will be made.
Payne dealt with soreness in his foot beginning in March of last season and wore a walking boot for the remainder of the season before and after practices and games. He participated in summer league, but after the soreness did not improve, he and the team decided to surgically repair the Jones fracture. The team called it a “proactive” surgery at the time.
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It remains to be seen how “active” Payne’s next treatment will be and how long he’ll be on the shelf, but you’d forgive Thunder fans for feeling just a teensy bit concerned after watching Durant miss most of the 2014-15 season following complications stemming from the same injury. A silver lining: in that case, Durant’s original fracture was reportedly not healing properly, which contributed to the re-injury, while Payne was reportedly coming along nicely following his procedure and had been a full participant in the Thunder’s first two training camp practices, without any restrictions.
If Payne’s forced to miss significant time, Donovan will likely turn to veteran guard Ronnie Price — a steady hand who handled backup duty for a half-dozen NBA teams over the last 11 years before receiving a multi-year deal to join the Thunder this summer — to serve as Westbrook’s primary understudy. But while Price is a known quantity as a pesky defender and occasional facilitator, it’s Payne’s promise as a potential supplementary playmaker and possible Russ running buddy in two-point-guard lineups that Thunder fans had hoped to get a longer look at as the team works to remain a threat in the Western Conference post-Durant.
For now, Payne, the Thunder and OKC fans will have to put that hoped-for experimentation on ice, and hope that these foot issues wind up being a momentarily unpleasant annoyance early in a distinguished stint rather than a recurring bummer that short-circuits a promising career.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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