John Collins‘ right ring finger injury won’t improve much if he continues to play this season, an orthopedic specialist told The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner.
The specialist, Deepak Chona, said the proper treatment requires the finger to be immobilized in a splint for the tissue to heal. The best-case scenario if Collins continues playing would be partial healing in two or three weeks and moderate improvement in his shooting as the Hawks forward becoming used to his shooting hand being compromised.
Collins is averaging 9.3 PPG on 35.9% shooting in four March games. Collins, who is unsure whether he should continue playing, will sit out against Portland on Monday.
“I want to rest. I want to feel right,” he said. “But I know in an 82-game season, it’s not always going to be the case to feel 100 percent.”
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- Victor Oladipo didn’t play in the second game of a back-to-back on Saturday and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said they don’t want to push him too much physically, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. “This is just a matter of I’m not going to try to fast track this,” Spoelstra said “This is going to be about us tempering the expectations.” Miami plays Detroit on Tuesday.
- Oladipo is averaging 6.7 PPG and 3.0 APG in 16.7 MPG since returning from his quad injury. The former All-Star admitted to The Athletic’s Joe Vardon that it’s been a humbling experience. “It did affect me, going through all of those things,” said Oladipo, who will be a free agent again this summer. “Feeling like people kind of wrote me off, and feeling like people are kind of being weird, moving weird around me as a person. It was just weird, and I didn’t help myself either. I had to change the people I was around, who I was letting represent me. I had to change who I was letting manage my life. I had to change a whole bunch of stuff.”
- Jamahl Mosley has put his stamp on the Magic in his first year as head coach and the Orlando Sentinel’s Khobi Price takes a closer look at Mosley’s early impact on the franchise.