The worst fears of Utah Jazz fans may have just been realized. Exciting young guard Dante Exum apparently suffered a serious-looking injury to his left knee playing in an international friendly for his native Australia on Tuesday.
Jazz say Dante Exum suffered a left knee injury today with his native Australia vs Slovenia. He will return to SLC for further evaluation.
— Marc J. Spears (@SpearsNBAYahoo) August 4, 2015
It looks like Dante Exum's knee injury didn't involve any contact. Here's video: https://t.co/qZnZ2bhKE1
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) August 4, 2015
The dreaded non-contact knee injury always make us hold our collective breaths. It’s especially so considering how eerily similar the injury looked to Derrick Rose’s torn ACL in 2011 with the left knee giving way off a bad plant.
While there is no word yet on the severity of the injury, the timing couldn’t be worse if Exum were forced to miss significant time. Training camp for the 2015-16 NBA season is only a few weeks away. Exum was really making strides in player development over the summer, both in Vegas Summer League and in international play. He was showing increased confidence this summer getting into the lane and finishing, as well as in spot-up shooting opportunities, two of his biggest rookie year weakness.
Exum’s rookie season was forgettable with paltry averages of 4.8 points per game, 1.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game on 34.9 percent shooting. He was an absolute nightmare on offense but was surprisingly solid on the defensive end. Exum showed brilliance as a one-on-one perimeter defender and a capable help defender who could make crisp rotations. The Jazz were actually 5.6 points better defensively when Exum was on the floor last year (99.0 defensive rating) as opposed to when he sat (104.6 defensive rating). Now that his offensive game was starting to come around, a serious knee injury would be utterly disastrous.
An extended Exum absence would put a serious damper on a Utah Jazz team poised to make a dark horse bid for the Western Conference playoffs next season. They would be forced to continue giving major minutes to the undersized, inefficient Trey Burke and fresh-off-major-shoulder-surgery Trey Burke. Perhaps they would have to ask Gordon Hayward and even Rodney Hood to take on heavier ballhandling duties as well.
Like that of Paul George before him, Exum’s injury may cause significant debate as to whether or not NBA teams should allow their players to participate in international competition over the summer. Let’s just hope for the best with the talented Australian guard.
*Stats courtesy of NBA.com*
