Portland Trail Blazers 7-footer Meyers Leonard is expected to miss 4-6 weeks after spraining his right ankle, says Trail Blazers beat reporter Casey Holdahl:
MRI confirms Meyers Leonard has a right lateral ankle sprain, he will be out 4-6 weeks
— Casey Holdahl (@CHold) October 27, 2017
Leonard injured the ankle prior to the Blazers’ practice on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Leonard told Joe Freeman of The Oregonian that this is the second-worst ankle sprain of his career:
“The one I had my rookie year was pretty nasty — but this is by far my second worst sprain,” said Leonard, who missed roughly three weeks that season with the same injury.
Leonard has appeared in just two of the Blazers’ five games this season, playing 17 total minutes.
Originally a raw product out of Illinois, Leonard has developed into a capable outside shooter at the center position; over the last three seasons, he’s shot a combined 37.4 percent on three-pointers.
Unfortunately, Leonard has a fairly incomplete game; outside of shooting, size and athleticism, he doesn’t bring much to the table.
Leonard had his best season in 2015-16 when he put up career-high per-game averages in points (8.4) and rebounds (5.1).
This injury shouldn’t affect Portland too much; Leonard has mostly fallen out of the rotation, and the Blazers drafted two young bigs this year: Zach Collins and Caleb Swanigan.
