Only nine days remain before the NBA season tips off and fantasy owners are left scrambling to adjust their player rankings.
Earlier this week, Dirk Nowitzki announced he will undergo knee surgery and Kevin Love suffered a broken hand doing push-ups on his knuckles as part of his training regimen.
As the pre-season draws to a close, many high round draft picks will begin their season on the sidelines.
Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudmire was held out of the first two exhibition contests of the season and the plan was to bring him back slowly.
Last season, Stoudemire missed 13 games because of back spasms, two because of a sprained ankle and Game 3 of the opening round of the playoffs after lacerating his hand punching a glass casing for a fire extinguisher.
Sunday morning, the Knicks announced Stoudemire would be out two-to-three weeks with a ruptured popliteal cyst behind his left knee.
New York was hoping to find a way to mesh Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony in the offense with a full training camp and pre-season, but Stoudemire logged just 27 minutes during Friday’s 107-98 loss to the Raptors.
The Knicks roster will begin the season severely depleted as Iman Shmpert and Marcus Camby have missed the entire pre-season and Ronnie Brewer just participated in his first full practice.
Golden State has plenty of injury woes of its own, as Stephen Curry had his surgically repaired right ankle stepped on during a pre-season contest against Portland.
Curry was limited to just 23 games last season and after spraining his ankle Friday night, the Warriors decided to keep him shelved for the rest of the pre-season as a precautionary measure.
Ankle injuries have been problematic for Curry throughout his four year, the 24-year-old underwent arthroscopic surgery in April and had during the summer of 2011, he had a procedure done to repair a tendon in his ankle.
Although he will sit out until Golden State’s regular season opener Oct. 31 at Phoenix.
Curry took to Twitter in an attempt to reassure his fans.
Curry will be joining starting center Andrew Bogut on the sidelines as he continues to deal with ankle issues of his own.
Bogut underwent surgery on his ankle on April 27th, but has yet to appear in a pre-season game or receive clearance to participate in team scrimmages.
The team has yet to set a projected date for his return but with Minnesota and Dallas hobbled by the loss of their star forwards, Golden State is missing a valuable chance to make an early push in the playoff race.
The 7-footer has yet to play a game for Golden State since being acquired in a trade on March 14th.
In Atlanta, two-time All-Star center Al Horford was limited to just 11 regular season games after suffering a shoulder injury in a game against Indiana.
Saturday night against Dallas, Horford sat out the entire second half after experiencing soreness in his left calf.
The injury shouldn’t jeopardize Horford for the Hawks season opener Nov. 2nd against Houston.
