Just 11 minutes into his season opener, Charlotte Hornets forward Nicolas Batum suffered a broken middle finger, which will cause him to miss the next 3-4 weeks of action.
After nursing an achilles injury that allowed him to play in just two of the five preseason games, Nicolas Batum is back on-the-mend for the Charlotte Hornets after suffering a broken middle finger in Wednesday night’s win over Chicago.
Losing a player, a rotation player at that, this early on into the season is never easy. Batum may have lost his starting spot to open the season, but he was still expected to play a key role while coming off the bench. He’s a versatile piece that can play and guard multiple positions.
He may not be the fan favorite, but Batum is a good player. He has, obviously, declined quite a bit at this stage in his career, but the Hornets will depend on his all-around play and locker room leadership throughout the season.
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Shams Charania of The Athletic was the first to report Batum’s finger injury, while Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports was the first to report the 3-4 week recovery period.
Last season, Batum averaged 9.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists for the Charlotte Hornets. Before going out with the injury against Chicago on Wednesday night, Batum was scoreless, but he did rack up four rebounds and two assists in those 11 minutes on the floor.
Going into the regular season, it appeared that Batum would be fighting for a starting spot with Malik Monk. Instead, both player are on the bench, with first round draft pick PJ Washington shining in the starting five
With Batum out for the next 3-4 weeks, it’s going to be interesting to see who James Borrego gives his minutes to. You could look to give some of the young players some extra minutes, or go with another veteran player, like Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Batum has started the 2019-20 season banged up, but hopefully he can recover even quicker than the initial time-table says. Yes, he’s making $25 million this season and yes, he’s not worth that amount of money, but the fact is, Batum is a key piece to this young roster, even if the numbers say otherwise.
The Charlotte Hornets are back in action tonight, facing off against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Both teams, who are considered to be in rebuild mode, won their first games of the season. We’ll see what kind of adjustments Charlotte makes with Batum out.