Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was added to the injury report on Wednesday due to right foot plantar fasciitis. This affliction is not maintenance-related, head coach Mark Daigneault emphasized.
The coach was uncertain about the severity of the injury, but did clarify it is different than the rest and maintenance day that Gilgeous-Alexander received on Sunday.
Daigneault was asked if it would be a long-term injury.
“I don’t want to use long-term, cause it’s vague, but it’s not day-to-day. It’s going to be a more significant amount of time than day-to-day. This one is an injury that we need to now take a look at,” he said.
“To be honest with you, the other ones were maintenance — we were up front about that, obviously — but this is kind of, as we were going through, doing some maintenance sit-outs, obviously resting (Al) Horford more aggressively, this is what we were trying to avoid.”
Daigneault specified that the short offseason following bubble play, the condensed schedule this season and the anticipated short offseason later this year have played roles in rest days that players including Gilgeous-Alexander, Horford and Lu Dort have received.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s injury is believed to be the cumulative effect of wear on the body, not based on a specific event or play, Daigneault said.
The coach said he learned of the foot injury on Wednesday.
“I don’t have a ton of detail on it, to be honest with you. It’s happened pretty quickly today, in terms of new information,” Daigneault said.
The coach emphasized that the right foot plantar fasciitis is different than past days off Thunder players have received.
“Obviously when we’ve got a guy out for maintenance, or for rest, it’s easy to be in the moment and wonder why we’re doing that, but I think this makes it very tangible. We were trying to avoid this. And obviously we didn’t,” Daigneault said.
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