Nuggets ahead Vlatko Cancar, who exited Tuesday’s sport within the second quarter attributable to what the group known as a left knee sprain, might be out “for the foreseeable future,” head coach Michael Malone mentioned on Thursday, per Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette.
Cancar and the Nuggets are weighing potential remedy choices for the knee damage, in accordance with Malone, who mentioned the ailment is “not essentially” season-ending, according to Bennett Durando of The Denver Submit.
“It might go a pair alternative ways. We’re nonetheless gathering info, letting the knee settle down a little bit bit,” Malone mentioned. “So I don’t wish to get doom and gloom. However he’s out for the foreseeable future.”
Requested if the choice will come all the way down to a surgical vs. non-surgical method, Malone replied, “I’m not gonna go into all the small print, however some completely different choices might be on the desk for Vlatko, and we’ll attempt to educate him.” He added that the subsequent steps for the 27-year-old will doubtless be decided inside the subsequent week.
Whereas a sprained knee ligament usually ends in no less than a multi-week absence by itself, Cancar’s damage precipitated extra concern on Tuesday as a result of it affected the identical knee during which he tore an ACL last summer. That ACL tear precipitated him to overlook your entire 2023/24 season.
Cancar re-signed with the Nuggets on a one-year, minimum-salary deal this previous offseason. The Slovenian ahead had appeared in simply 4 video games thus far this season, having sat out six attributable to a sprained ankle and three as a DNP-CD. Nevertheless, he logged double-digit minutes on Sunday for the primary time this season and did so once more on Tuesday earlier than injuring his knee. Malone referred to Cancar’s play in these video games with the second unit as “actually, actually efficient.”
The Nuggets are already lacking one frontcourt piece on account of a major damage. First-round choose DaRon Holmes sustained a season-ending Achilles tear throughout his Summer season League debut in July.
