The 5-15 Brooklyn Nets got some bad news today as impressive rookie swing-man Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was reportedly diagnosed with an ankle fracture and will be out indefinitely.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson will have ankle surgery. Here’s the medical update from the Nets. pic.twitter.com/uA5kZUSC59
— Andy Vasquez (@andy_vasquez) December 7, 2015
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According to the team, the injury was suffered in practice on Saturday and caused Hollis-Jefferson to miss Sunday’s home loss against the Golden State Warriors. Initially, the X-rays on Rondae’s ankle came back negative, but a cat scan revealed the fracture.
The rookie had been having a pretty good debut NBA season for the Nets up until the injury, starting in 14 of 19 games and averaging over five points and six rebounds per contest. He also made over 48 percent of his field goals and posted an impressive 3.5 defensive box plus/minus, according to Basketball-Reference. The Arizona product, a Pennsylvania native, has been an above-average player according to most advanced metrics, especially the defensive ones.
He’s also shown signs of improvement on the offensive end, which was his problem during college and the reason he fell to pick No. 23 in the first round of June’s draft. Now, both Brooklyn rookies (not including Juan Pablo Vaulet), Hollis-Jefferson and McCullough, are expected to be out for a long period of time. With other injuries to Sergey Karasev and Andrea Bargnani, guys like Markel Brown and Willie Reed will have to step up and play prominent roles for Lionel Hollins.
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