The good injury luck the Bucks had going into the regular season didn’t last long at all. Just 10 minutes into the season opener against the Washington Wizards, the new starting point guard, Kevin Porter Jr., suffered a left ankle sprain. It happened after he accidentally stepped on Bobby Portis’s foot while defending Cam Whitemore on a drive to the basket. Now, according to the latest NBA injury report, Sakuta has been ruled out due to that injury. This is what head coach Doc Rivers said after the Bucks’
133-120 win over Washington, on the status of Porter moving forward:
“It didn’t look good, I’ll tell you that. We’re going to do an MRI tomorrow (today as you’re reading this), and gotta hope for the best. Looking at it, it was a pretty bad sprain.”
We have yet to hear the full extent of the injury from the team or how long he will be out. We can estimate our own potential timeline based on the three grades of an ankle sprain. Grade one is very minor, and according to Harvard Health, it usually takes about 1 to 2 weeks to heal completely. If it’s a grade two sprain, it can take up to six weeks to heal, taking him into early September. If the injury were severe enough to warrant a grade three strain, he could be out six months or more, so the entire regular season.
In his stead, I imagine Ryan Rollins would slide into the starting lineup, allowing Cole Anthony to lead the second unit with Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis. It’s not an unfamiliar position for Rollins, as he was typically the guy Doc tapped to be the starter last season whenever Damian Lillard was out, starting 19 games for the Bucks. In those 19 starts, Rollins averaged 6.9 points per game, 2.1 rebounds, two assists, and shot 48.5% from the field and 40.5% from beyond the arc.
