Duke in the NBA: Luke Kennard out with a shoulder injury
A former Duke Basketball player received some bad news on Friday morning that will sideline him for a period of time with an injury.
Luke Kennard was ready to thrive in his second NBA season, but he will be on the sidelines for an extended period of time as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Kennard separated his shoulder.
Per Woj, Kennard will miss about three to four weeks.
Kennard left last night victory over the Cleveland Cavilers and people in the organization were hoping that it would just be a sprain, but the severity of the separated shoulder is not as bad as it could have been.
After a bit of a slow start to the season, Kennard was on fire last night as he made all of his four shot attempts from the field, totaling eight points in just 13 minutes of action. Kennard also was able to pick up one steal and assist.
It was Kennard’s best game of the season so far after he scored seven points, making three of his five shots in the win over the Brooklyn Nets in the Detroit Pistons season opener.
The Detroit Pistons are 4-0 as they will host the Boston Celtics on Saturday night at 7:00 pm ET.
Kennard was healthy for the majority of last season as he played in 73 games for the Pistons in his rookie season, starting nine of those games. The No. 12 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft averaged 7.6 points per game in his rookie campaign.
The volume shooter and scorer, established himself in his sophomre season at Duke when he averaged 19.5 points per game in the 2016-17 season, on a team with Celtics star Jayson Tatum and Jazz rookie Grayson Allen, among other stars.
Luke Kennard is expected to be reevaluated in two weeks, with hopes of returning shortly after that.