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Charlotte Hornets Rumors: Frank Kaminsky Could Miss the Rest of the Season

By Jerry Stephens

Mar 2, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Charlotte Hornets center Frank Kaminsky III reacts after suffering an injury in the fourth quarter against the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena. The Suns defeated the Hornets 120-103. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 2, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Charlotte Hornets center Frank Kaminsky III reacts after suffering an injury in the fourth quarter against the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena. The Suns defeated the Hornets 120-103. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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After suffering an AC joint sprain against the Suns, Frank Kaminsky could possibly miss the remainder of the season for the Charlotte Hornets.

According to Spencer Percy of Queen City Hoops (ESPN’s TrueHoop affiliate blog), “Source: Frank Kaminsky injury is “bad” & “similar to MKG’s subluxation shoulder injury”. Timetable TBD – possibly remainder of season (More)”. This report from Spencer follows the Charlotte Hornets‘ announcement that Frank Kaminsky would miss the team’s next game against the Denver Nuggets and would be reevaluated once they get back to Charlotte.

The big man originally suffered the AC joint sprain in the fourth quarter of the Hornets’ game against the Phoenix Suns. He did not return but there wasn’t a lot of concern initially surrounding the injury. Now, it looks like things could go from bad to worse for Charlotte if this rumor turns out to be true.

Ultimately, we will have to wait for the MRI to see the true extent of the injury and if it will, in fact, require surgery or not. Just because it wasn’t reported by Woj or Stein, don’t rule it out just yet. Percy was the one to break the news of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist‘s major shoulder injury from last season.

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The knock comes at an inopportune time for both Kaminsky and the Hornets as Frank was just beginning to heat up this season. He was enjoying the best stretch of his career and now it appears as if that run could be cut short. An extended period of absence would also hurt Charlotte’s chances of making a playoff push in the second half of the season.

Although Kaminsky is only averaging 11.5 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game this season, he has stepped things up in the past month by averaging 18 PPG and seven RPG in February. Just as he began to break out of his sophomore slump, an injury may cut Frank’s season short.

The injury looked a bit awkward as the 23-year old big man banged his left shoulder into the chest of Alan Williams and immediately dropped to the ground holding his shoulder. Kaminsky was clearly in a lot of pain so the injury could definitely be pretty serious.

Here’s the play where the injury occurred:

The Hornets’ frontcourt has endured a number of injuries this season as Cody Zeller has missed a number of games and is barely returning on a minutes restriction. Miles Plumlee is still out with a calf strain so that only leaves Christian Wood and Johnny O’Bryant III, who is on a 10-day contract, as the only frontcourt options off of the bench at the moment.

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We will all have to wait and see what the official announcement is from the Charlotte Hornets after Kaminsky gets his MRI completed. Hopefully, it isn’t serious and Frank can return soon but the signs aren’t looking too good.

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