After almost a four month hiatus, the Sacramento Kings are back to practicing. This time however, they’ll have to work on their game in Orlando. Luke Walton and Richaun Holmes weigh in on the NBA’s return.
There was a collective sigh around Sacramento on Wednesday afternoon when the Kings revealed that De’Aaron Fox had sprained his left ankle and would be out of action for at least a week in the Orlando bubble.
It is Murphy’s Law for Kings fans. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. The Kings already had four positive coronavirus tests and a player in quarantine in his hotel room after violating bubble protocol.
On Thursday morning, the Kings held an early morning practice and head coach Luke Walton addressed the injury to Fox.
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“It’s mild to moderate is where the training staff is listing it as,” Walton said. “We’re hopeful that he’ll be able to join us, but we’ll reevaluate in seven to 10 days and see where we’re at.”
This isn’t the first left ankle injury for Fox this season. The 22-year-old point guard missed 17 games after suffering a Grade 3 sprain. That type of sprain includes a complete detachment of the ligament and usually requires a minimum of 10 to 12 weeks to heal.
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Fox miraculously returned in five weeks from the injury, which defied every possible prediction. But can the Kings rely on a similar response this time around?
“He’s young, he takes care of himself, he’s proven to be a fast healer,” Walton said. “That doesn’t mean we’ll be counting on that to happen again. We’re obviously going to be cautious with him. We know how important he is to our organization and to the success of our team.”
“We’re hopeful that because he’s healed fast in the past, he’ll do it again, but it’s something that we’re definitely not going to rush him back,” Walton added.
Fox was remarkably durable during the 2018-19 season for a player who plays with a ferocious pace and attacking style. He missed just one game and even that was a coaching call from head coach Dave Joerger after Fox had played an extremely high number of minutes early in the season.
Ankle injuries can plague a player, but there is hope that this is just a patch of bad luck for the Kings’ leading scorer.
“I wouldn’t say there is a level of concern at all,” Walton said when asked about repeated ankle injuries for Fox. “Ankle sprains are a big part of the game of basketball.”
Teams were only allowed to bring 35 members on their traveling team, plus one security member and person from their digital team. That number included coaches, players, training, medical, equipment and media relations staff. That doesn’t mean that Fox will get less than stellar treatment while he’s in Orlando.
“It’s different in the sense that we have an all hands on deck mentality right here,” Walton said. “But as far as the treatment that he’s receiving, nothing has been compromised as far as the quality of treatment that he’s been given.”
[RELATED: What Fox's injury means for Kings' chances in NBA restart]
Walton said that they have “Ultra-G” machines in the bubble and that it’s easy for Fox and others to go in and get treatment two or three times per day, as well as have medical staff make house calls to their rooms.
This is the reality of the bubble. Injuries are going to happen. There is a possibility that the coronavirus will somehow find its way in and every team is going to have to deal with injuries.
“What we’re hammering home right now is look, things are going to change every day for all of the teams that are active in this thing,” Walton said. “So just be ready for it. Be ready for whether it’s a change of a practice, of a lineup, minutes, off-days, whatever it is, we’ve got to be ready.”
With Fox temporarily on the shelf, veteran Cory Joseph has moved into the first group to take reps. It’s a position the Kings have been in before and Joseph helped keep the Kings on the right path when Fox went down early in the season.
Sacramento isn’t the only team dealing with adversity, but it has hit them hard early in the process. The Kings will need to be resilient and have a “next man up” mentality if they hope to fare well in the eight-game micro-season that begins on July 31.