The Los Angeles Lakers’ season hasn’t even started yet and they are already being affected by injuries as it was recently announced that Trevor Ariza will be evaluated in eight weeks after undergoing ankle surgery.
Additionally, the Lakers were also without two of their young guard for Sunday night’s preseason game against the Phoenix Suns as Talen Horton-Tucker was dealing with a right thumb sprain and Malik Monk a right groin strain.
Vogel provided an update on both players before the game, and Horton-Tucker is expected to undergo surgery after further evaluation. As for Monk though, Vogel says he will be out for about a week.
“Malik [Monk] is going to be out for probably about a week with the strained groin. He’s likely going to miss about a week,” Vogel said.
The Lakers open up the regular season a week from Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors, and Vogel is hopeful that Monk will be ready for that game.
“He’s going to be re-evaluated in a week, but we are hopeful that he’ll be available for the opener for us.”
Monk has arguably been the Lakers’ most impressive player this preseason so he is definitely someone they will want out on the floor when games start counting.
Vogel trusts Monk as member of rotation
While the Lakers have a ton of depth and some players may not see the floor every night, Vogel anticipates Monk being a member of the rotation, which is why they are being cautious with this injury.
“The tricky thing about our roster is we’ve got a lot of guys that I know or that I trust to be rotational guys. … But Malik is definitely someone that I trust to be part of that rotation and feel confident he can help us win games, so to me it’s a long season. If he misses a couple of these preseason games, it’s not the end of the world. Being healthy for the start of the season is.”
It remains to be seen if Monk will start or come off the bench, although it will likely be the latter to give the Lakers’ second unit a scoring punch.
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