Nuggets’ Cancar Cleared To Return, Discusses Knee Surgery

Nuggets forward/center Vlatko Cancar, who underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in the fall, was cleared to return earlier this week and was technically active in Denver’s games on Wednesday and Friday, though he didn’t play at all.

According to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, after Cancar injured his knee in November, he spent two weeks seeking out medical opinions and had multiple surgical options to consider, including waiting until the end of the season to go under the knife or undergoing a cartilage transplant, which would have been a more serious procedure with a longer recovery time.

“To me, (the cartilage transplant) was never an option because it’s a longer period. You have to rehab for 12 months,” said Cancar, who missed the 2023/24 season with a torn ACL in the same knee. “We kind of sat down and talked this through, the whole training staff. … The coaches and everybody knew what I’ve been through before, so they were like, ‘Whatever you do, we’re going to support you.’

“And then after, I think it was just an easy decision for me (to have surgery immediately), the reason being I knew I was going to get back healthy during the season rather than the offseason. Because back home, you’re not really in focus mode that much.”

As Durando explains, the opportunity to recovery from surgery while having access to the Nuggets training staff appealed to Cancar, who wouldn’t have had the same resources over the summer in his home country of Slovenia. The 27-year-old also liked the idea of addressing the issue sooner rather than later and returning before the end of the season so he could be available for the playoffs.

According to Cancar, his surgeon discovered some lingering scar tissue from his ACL injury during the procedure, which involved shaving off a bit of cartilage.

“When I was playing, I didn’t really notice it,” Cancar said. “But once he went in, he was like, it took him more time to get rid of the scar tissue than actually to do the cartilage shave. … It’s a good thing and a bad thing that I went under the knife, because he cleared a lot of scar tissue, but at the same time set me back a little bit more.

“Everything went smooth. I wanted to be back before, but I think (the team) said to be a little bit more patient and give me a little bit more time. Now I just have to build tolerance, because not pain, but soreness and stiffness now is going to be there a long time.”

Cancar wasn’t a regular part of the Nuggets’ rotation prior to the injury, logging just 34 minutes in four appearances off the bench. But he had a couple solid outings in mid-November, including scoring five points and grabbing four rebounds in 11 minutes in the game in which his injury occurred.

As Durando writes, Cancar will likely remain a “deep-bench” reserve for Denver as long as the team stays healthy, as reflected by his two DNP-CDs this week.