Trail Blazers reserve center Cody Zeller went under the knife in Los Angeles on Tuesday for a knee surgery to treat a patellar injury, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Woj notes that Portland expects the veteran big man to be sidelined for eight to 10 weeks as he recovers.
Earlier this season, Zeller missed nearly a month’s worth of action (12 games) between a knee injury and logging time in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols. The 29-year-old vet returned on Jan. 7 for three contests but has missed the Trail Blazers’ six latest games due to the patellar injury. All told, he has suited up for just 27 games this season, his first with the Trail Blazers after signing a one-year, veteran’s minimum contract this summer.
In 13.1 MPG, Zeller is averaging 5.2 PPG on 56.7% field goal shooting, plus 4.6 RPG, during the 2021-22 NBA season thus far. The 6-11 center was selected with the fourth draft pick out of Indiana by the Hornets (then the Bobcats) in 2013 and had spent his eight previous NBA seasons in Charlotte.
Sporting a 20-26 record thus far, the Trail Blazers currently occupy the No. 10 seed in the West, which would land them at the bottom of the play-in tournament bracket were the season to end today. In addition to Zeller, Portland is also missing star point guard Damian Lillard due to a recent surgery of his own, to address a long-standing abdominal injury.
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