Reggie Jackson could be sidelined for weeks with left knee tendinitis
Detroit Pistons starting point guard and team leader Reggie Jackson could be out for the start of the regular season and even longer, the team reported on Wednesday, as the 26-year-old battles tendinitis in his left knee.
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The point guard, who averaged 18.8 points and 6.2 assists in 79 games last year and is about to enter his sixth season, could see himself out for nearly two months if he decides to undergo a popular procedure intended to heal what can be stubborn and aching knees, putting the start of the Pistons’ first back-to-back playoff run since 2009 in jeopardy.
Rod Beard from the Detroit News, following up on a day’s worth of rumors, has the call:
Coach Stan Van Gundy said that Jackson, who has been suffering from the effects of tendinitis in his left knee, will be sidelined for at least a couple weeks, as the Pistons begin the preseason schedule on Thursday at Brooklyn.
“He’s going to be out for a while,” Van Gundy said Wednesday. “We don’t know how long — and that’ll all be determined by what he chooses to do.
“He has not decided upon a treatment course yet; that decision should be in the next day or two. (Jackson) wanted to make sure they had a couple days to think about it after digesting what the doctors said.”
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The left knee tendinitis, common amongst right-handed NBA players to varying degrees from salvageable to serious, has been in place since Jackson’s time with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The point guard was dealt from OKC to Detroit in February of 2015.
Beard went on to consider the option for Reggie to undergo a platelet-rich plasma procedure, one Jackson underwent while with the Thunder, one that could leave him on the shelf for a reported “six-to-eight weeks.” With the 2016-17 NBA season set to start in three weeks, the pressure is on Jackson to determine a course of action that might get the worst out of the way first, in a Pistons season that the team hopes to string along until May.
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Detroit signed point guard Ish Smith in the offseason to help mask what had been a disadvantaged position for them at reserve point guard since the (one-sided, in Detroit’s favor) deal that sent former starting point man Brandon Jennings to Orlando for a Tobias Harris.
Smith, however, is ideally suited for his role as a bench scorer, and not someone to run sets for extended minutes as a starter. Detroit will be at a significant disadvantage, should Jackson miss regular season games, with Reggie out of the lineup. Especially when someone like Ray McCallum is forced into taking what were Ish Smith’s minutes.
Look for the team to attempt to score a stalwart veteran point guard from what’s left of the free agent market, which includes Kirk Hinrich and Steve Blake, among others.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!