5:51pm: Dozier suffered a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the season, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
6:48am: Nuggets wing PJ Dozier had to be carried off the court on Tuesday after landing awkwardly late in the first quarter of Denver’s loss to Portland. The team hasn’t yet provided an official update on what was diagnosed as a left knee injury, but there’s concern that Dozier’s season is in jeopardy, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Sources tell Wojnarowski that, after conducting initial imaging on Tuesday night, the Nuggets fear Dozier tore his left ACL. The injury will be evaluated further on Wednesday to determine the severity.
If today’s testing confirms that Dozier tore his ACL, it would be a brutal blow for both him and the team, which had relied on the 25-year-old as one of its go-to players off the bench. In 18 games so far this season, Dozier has averaged 5.4 PPG and 3.5 RPG in 18.9 minutes per contest.
The banged-up Nuggets are already dealing with a series of injuries to star players. Jamal Murray is recovering from an ACL tear of his own and will be out until the spring; Michael Porter Jr. is out indefinitely due to a nerve issue in his back; and Nikola Jokic has missed the team’s last three games due to a right wrist sprain.
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks observes (via Twitter), Dozier’s $1.91MM salary for 2021/22 isn’t yet fully guaranteed, but it would become guaranteed if he’s ruled out for the season. Denver could also apply for a disabled player exception in that scenario, though such an exception – which would be worth half of Dozier’s salary – would have little practical value.
A team can apply for a hardship exception, opening up a temporary 16th roster spot, if it has at least four players who have missed at least three games due to injury or illness and are expected to be sidelined for at least two more weeks. However, while Murray, Porter, and Dozier appear likely to be out for the long term, Jokic should be back as soon as Friday and it’s unclear if Bones Hyland (right ankle sprain) is at risk of missing multiple weeks.
Dang that’s a blow. This teams depth is being challenged.
This year might turn into let’s see what we really have in Bol Bol.
#Freebolbol
bench MVP
rest Murray and MPJ
let’s go tanking !!!
Starting to look like it’s just not Denver’s year. Too many quality guys are out this year for them. That’s a tough break. I like Dozier and thought he was coming into his own as a bench guy.
Tough break for the nuggets here . You start to wonder if the nba draft lottery becomes more of a realistic option now . It’s still really early in the nba season things can turn around tho . The nuggets won’t tank that’s not there emo . But Can we get off the bol bol discussion he still looks lost out there . There is a reason he doesn’t play regular minutes. He is so talented but he lacks motivation and a lot of times looks like he doesn’t want to be out there .
Exactly this. All the skill but almost zero motor and drive. Jogs around.
The one time I’ve seen any spirit out of him was early in the season when it looked like he might have regular minutes. Once a few DNPCDs started piling up it seemed like he gave up trying to impress.
Can you blame him for that???
Then someone should explain to him what the word ‘professional’ means. Maybe a little stay in Grand Rapids can wake him from his coma
Their modus operandi is turning them into emos.
It’s not even necessarily motivation. What position does he play, who can he guard?
Who can guard him?
Praying so hard rn
To be honest, I had them out of the top 8 before the preseason, and this is a really big blow. He is arguably their only wing defender, and 1 of their only guard defenders, besides Monte Morris. I could see certain guys being trade candidates on this roster, but there are some players still in FA they should really consider, depending on their roster count.
Before this season the nuggets were a top 3 or 4 team at least .Fully healthy they are tittle contenders no doubt about it . They can compete with the sounds , Lakers , clippers . Problem is they are not healthy right now . They are definitely in jeopardy of being out of the playoffs without Murray, jokic , porter . If they get jokic back he can lead them without Murray and porter to a top 6 seed . But the rookie bones hyland is gonna have to step up big time . The nuggets are gonna have to rely heavily on Barton and bones to help jokic out . I do agree the nuggets do need to help jokic out and make some trades tho . My pick is Harrison Barnes . For many of reasons .
Free Jokic, ShaiGA, Simmons, Suggs
Damn this sucks. The nuggets are a really exciting team on paper and they just keep getting awful injury luck.