It’s still over 10 days until the start of the NBA’s regular season, but the Nets are already dealing with an injury to Brook Lopez’s troublesome right foot.
The team announced Thursday night Lopez would miss the next 10-14 days after suffering a mild midfoot sprain during the first quarter of the Nets’ win over the Kings in Beijing on Wednesday.
The time frame for Lopez’s recovery could see him miss the season opener in Boston on Oct. 29. The Nets then travel to Detroit for a game Nov. 1 before returning home to face Oklahoma City on Nov. 3.
“Brook Lopez experienced right foot soreness after being stepped on during the preseason game against the Kings Wednesday night. X-ray and CT scan studies done Thursday in New York reveal no fractures or bone injuries,” Nets medical director Dr. Riley Williams III said in a statement. “Brook has been diagnosed with a mild midfoot sprain and is likely to be out for approximately 10-14 days.”
While the Nets are terming the injury as “mild,” there is nothing mild about anything happening to Lopez’s right foot, which has suffered at least one injury in each of the last three seasons. He played only five games in 2011-12 because of a fractured fifth metatarsal — the same injury that ended his 2013-14 season after 17 games — and also missed several games with a midfoot sprain early in the 2012-13 season.
Lopez underwent complicated surgery in January in order to redistribute the weight across his right foot and prevent any recurrence of the metatarsal injuries he had suffered previously.
The 7-footer, an All-Star in 2013 and arguably the best low-post scorer in the NBA, can opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent next July. In three preseason games, Lopez averaged 18.0 points and 5.8 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game.