When it rains, it pours. And for the Atlanta Hawks, the onslaught of injuries that muddled the start of the season threatens to derail the momentum they had built up since it (temporarily, apparently) subsided.
The Hawks on Wednesday announced that second-year guard Kobe Bufkin would undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. That is already tough news with a road game on deck.
The Hawks were not done, though, announcing Onyeka Okongwu will miss time.
Hawks lose Onyeka Okongwu for at least next 4 games
“An @emoryhealthcare injury update: Center Onyeka Okongwu (left knee inflammation) will be out for the next four games and will be re-evaluated in approximately one week,” the Hawks announced with a post on X on December 18.
“His status will be updated as appropriate.
Okongwu, 24, is averaging career highs with 11.3 points and 1.4 assists per game, tacking on 6.6 rebounds for good measure. He has also continued dabbling in long-range looks.
Big O's 2nd corner 3 of the day 🎯 pic.twitter.com/ITTEinynNP
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) December 14, 2024
Losing a center is typically ominous when set to face Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama.
Some metrics suggest this is not as big of a loss as it may seem on paper. After all, Okongwu is part of the NBA’s third-highest-scoring bench mob. But he also has the second-worst on-off differential on the team behind only Bogdan Bogdanovic, per Cleaning The Glass.
Okongwu has dealt with injuries through most of his career, appearing in 80 games in 2022-23 but no more than 55 games in any other season.
The hope is this is a swift and full recovery so he can bring his dynamic game back to the court.
However, this foreshadows a much more ominous possibility for the Hawks. They already saw the results of having to navigate waters while shorthanded. It did not go well, with the Hawks dropping 11 of 16 games after opening the season with back-to-back wins.
Hawks trending in wrong direction in standings and injury report
The Hawks are 1-2 in their last three contests and face a daunting slate of games for roughly the next month.
The next time the Hawks will face teams with losing records in consecutive games is January 22-23.
In the meantime, the Hawks have a six-game road trip, a three-game road trip, and 13 games against teams chasing the postseason. How the Hawks emerge from this stretch could be key with just over two weeks to go until the February 6 trade deadline by then.
The Hawks have already had to navigate a lot this season. Another injury could mean the difference between keeping the train on the track and things derailing quickly.
When the latter happens, changes occur. See: the Hawks’ 2024 offseason.
Hawks' health and the trade deadline
Okongwu is in Year 1 of a four-year, $62.9 million contract, and is rumored to be the Hawks’ preferred center in potential trade talks. But his injury means not only is he not getting traded, but the Hawks cannot reasonably pull the trigger on a deal for starter Clint Capela either.
Unless that move, which is purely hypothetical at this point, brought back another starting-caliber center, the Hawks would be woefully small in the frontcourt.
Injuries are so disruptive, as the Hawks are again having to endure.