Portland Trail Blazers: Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkic injury update

The Portland Trail Blazers recently released some not-so-surprising injury news. Jusuf Nurkić (left foot plantar fasciitis), guard Eric Bledsoe (tendinopathy in his left Achilles tendon), and guard Anfernee Simons (patellar tendinopathy in his left knee) will all be shut down for the remainder of the 2022 NBA regular season.

Rest assured, none of these deactivations are due to setbacks, but rather are a result of the Trail Blazers’ outlook for the rest of the year.

Trendon Watford hyperextended his knee and received a bruised bone which he suffered in a loss to the Rockets and will be re-evaluated in a week, at which point Portland will only have four games left to play.

Portland Trail Blazers give injury update on Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkic, and others

Bledsoe, who was acquired before the trade deadline in the Norman Powell and Robert Covington trade with the Clippers, never appeared on the court for Portland. He did play in 54 games for Los Angeles, averaging 9.9 points and 4.2 assists per game before his injury.

With these injuries, could we have seen the last of Nurkić and Simons in Portland jerseys? Both are unrestricted free agents this coming offseason. There is interest amongst the Blazers and both players to cement their futures in Portland. Bledsoe is an unrestricted free agent in 2023. The Blazers could and will likely waive him to create more salary-cap space this offseason as his deal in 2022 is only partially guaranteed.

It won’t come as much of a shock if we never see Bledsoe don the Trail Blazers red and black.

The good news out of this injury report is that we still could see guard/forward Didi Louzada this season. Louzada was acquired as part of the CJ McCollum/New Orleans trade at the deadline. Louzada underwent surgery in February for a torn meniscus in his left knee. He was drafted 35th overall by Atlanta in the 2019 draft and has only appeared in five total games.

Regardless of who we see in these last few remaining games, the injury report made one thing clear: the goal is to lose all of them.