Portland Trail Blazers power forward Meyers Leonard has been ruled out of the team’s game against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday. However, he could conceivably miss more time with what is being called a separated shoulder suffered in practice. The injury has occurred to the same shoulder which Leonard dislocated earlier this season, causing him to miss a few games.
Leonard has not had the same level of improvement as most expected from him after a breakout season last year. However, he has still been quite good for this over-achieving Blazers team in his role. The sharpshooting big man is hitting threes at a 38% rate, helping the Portland offense become the seventh best in the entire NBA.
Fortunately for the Blazers, they have plenty of depth to take Leonard’s spot in the rotation should he be forced to miss significant time. Mason Plumplee, Noah Vonleh, Ed Davis, and Moe Harkless could all be asked to play more minutes to makeup for Leonard’s missed time and small forward Al-Farouq Aminu could conceivably play power forward in smaller lineups.
Leonard’s loss could still be huge for the Blazers should it last for longer than the officially proclaimed one game. Portland is currently the sixth seed in the Western Conference, but it is tied in the loss column with the Rockets and Mavericks, the seventh and eight seeds, respectively. Just a few games of less than one-hundred percent health could be the difference between a playoff matchup with a somewhat beatable Thunder team or one against the seemingly indomitable Spurs or Warriors.
Hopefully, Leonard will only miss the one game, but the injury seems significant enough to keep him out for a longer stretch. More details to come as they are provided.
