Zhaire Smith isn’t expected to become the latest Sixers first-round pick to miss his entire rookie season, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, who reports that the team believes Smith will be available to play in a game sometime around Christmas.
Smith, the 16th overall pick in the 2018 draft, sustained a left foot injury during a developmental camp in Las Vegas this summer and underwent surgery in August to repair a Jones fracture of the fifth metatarsal.
It generally takes about six to eight weeks for a Jones fracture to heal following surgery, perhaps with another two or three weeks of recovery time, Pompey notes. However, the Sixers have no desire to rush Smith back onto the court, particularly since the club isn’t necessarily counting on the rookie swingman to be a key part of its rotation in 2018/19.
A source tells Pompey that the Christmas timetable for Smith will hinge on the rookie getting in shape and not suffering any setbacks.
In recent years, the 76ers have had some bad injury luck with several of their top draft picks. Joel Embiid didn’t play in a game until his third NBA season, Nerlens Noel and Ben Simmons missed their full rookie campaigns, and Markelle Fultz appeared in just 14 games in 2017/18.
Can’t wait to see what Zhaire can bring to the table for Philly, could be a nice high energy, athletic rotation player for this season & keep growing his role in the next few years & be a very good glue guy for the team.
They haven’t really had “bad injury luck” insomuch as that have just drafted injured players in most cases.
That’s what they said about Ben and Noel too
Will be nice to see him in 2020-21
Embiid also only played 29 games his “rookie” year. Brogdon wins ROTY because he didn’t play a few more games. Man what happened to those rookies in 16-17 besides Simmons who missed the year. Saric was good but drafted the year earlier. BI and Kris Dunn are improving but didn’t have great rookie years. J Brown was ok his rookie year but had a good second year. Same with Caris Levert and Jamal Murray. I think Pat Mccaw even made the all-rookie 2nd team or was close I can’t remember. Buddy Buckets, Chriss, Willy and Yogi regressed and btw Willy, drafted the year before, and Yogi went undrafted. Ahh a Sean Marks mistake. Nets probably should’ve kept Yogi and maybe cut Whitehead.