Charlotte Hornets: Cody Zeller tears meniscus in left knee, Out indefinitely
The Charlotte Hornets will be a bit shorthanded for the foreseeable future as Cody Zeller suffered a serious knee injury.
The Charlotte Hornets have announced that Cody Zeller will be out indefinitely after tearing the medial meniscus in his left knee. The injury happened late in the third of the team’s game against the Golden State Warriors. This will be a major blow to a team that has already had to deal with their fair share of injuries this season.
Right when it looked like the team was finally getting healthy, two key players in Zeller and Kaminsky went down versus the Warriors. It will be tough for Charlotte to replace what Cody brings to the team as he’s been one of the top backup big men in the entire league. Zeller is averaging 7.2 points per game, 5.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 19.9 minutes. He’s also managed to shoot 49.5% from the field and 72.4% from the free throw line.
The injury was non-contact and happened when Zeller went to grab an offensive rebound. Just seconds after tearing his meniscus, he actually jumped off of his injured left leg to throw down this dunk.
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It’s unclear how long Cody Zeller will be out as it mostly depends on if he will get surgery or not. He could opt to forgo surgery and just rehab the injury which would probably let him return sooner. If he does opt for surgery to repair his torn meniscus, he will most likely be out for around six weeks.
Johnny O’Bryant will most likely fill in for Cody as the team’s backup center playing behind Dwight Howard. In nine appearances so far this season, JOB has averaged 4.7 points per game and 2.0 rebounds per game. There’s a chance that two-way player, Mangok Mathiang, could get called up from the Greensboro Swarm to help provide some frontcourt depth.
Charlotte also announced that Frank Kaminsky would miss at least one game but is day-to-day going forward. In the first half of the same game, he suffered a right ankle sprain and did not return after originally being listed as doubtful. Kaminsky has been one of the Hornets’ best bench scorers so far this year averaging 10.6 points per game.
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A number of Hornets’ players have already missed multiple games this season including Kemba Walker (missed 2 games), Michael Carter-Williams (11), Nicolas Batum (13) and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (6). The struggling Hornets will now need to find a way to win games without Cody Zeller who is one of their best players off of the bench. This injury also puts added pressure on Dwight Howard.