The injuries won’t stop.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Charlotte Hornets wing Kelly Oubre Jr. is undergoing surgery on his hand and will be out 4-6 weeks.
Sources: Hornets forward Kelly Oubre Jr. will undergo surgery on a torn ligament in his left hand and miss 4-to-6 weeks. Oubre – averaging a career high 20.2 points – suffered the injury in the first week of the season and has been playing through the pain on his shooting hand.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 3, 2023
The 4-6 timeframe pushes up against the All Star break, so that seems like a likely target return for Oubre. The other date of significance occurring during that window is the February 9th trade deadline. Oubre is oft talked about as a potential trade candidate, and this injury muddies the waters quite a bit.
Oubre is having arguably his best season as a pro. Injuries to other players forced him into the starting lineup for most of the season, which has resulted in him playing 32.6 minutes per game and averaging a career high 20.2 points per game. He’s been much more aggressive attacking the basket this season and has been one of the more disruptive players in the league defensively—he ranks second in total deflections and sixth in deflections per game.
The Hornets also potentially lost Gordon Hayward for an undetermined amount of time, which makes them precariously thin on the wings. Jalen McDaniels will get a lot of burn while Bryce McGowens and/or James Bouknight figure to get some minutes as well until Cody Martin returns from his absence.
The decision to undergo surgery now may be quite telling. As Shams notes in his Tweet, Oubre apparently sustained the injury in the first week of the season. He has been playing through the pain up to this point, and the decision to elect for surgery might be the first sign that the Hornets are calling this season a lost cause.