When Jason Preston was drafted by the LA Clippers, it was exciting to get a player who’s already on such an upward trajectory.
Preston went from being a ‘C team’ player at his high school to an NBA Draft pick. He went from scoring two points per game in high school to putting up 31 points, eight assists, and six rebounds against a top eight Illinois Fighting Illini team in college.
Preston was improving rapidly, but unfortunately that will be put to a pause for a while. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Preston just had right foot surgery in LA earlier today. He says that he is expected to miss a significant portion of the season.
Clippers rookie point guard Jason Preston had right foot surgery in Los Angeles today and is expected to miss a significant part of the season, sources tell ESPN. Preston was the 33rd pick in the July NBA Draft out of Ohio University.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 7, 2021
Jason Preston being hurt is a tough blow to the LA Clippers’ point guard depth.
Currently, Ty Lue plans to have both Eric Bledsoe and Reggie Jackson starting for the LA Clippers.
That means that neither of them will be serving as the backup point guard and Preston would probably need to run the point for the second team. Now, the second team will have to resort to maybe having Jay Scrubb on the floor with the second group in that role.
Lue could bench Bledsoe to have him take the ball up for the second team, have Jackson run the point with the starters, and move up Terance Mann or Nicolas Batum to the starting lineup, but he seems to like Bledsoe as a starter and I trust his judgement.
If he starts Bledsoe, his options to run the point with the second team would be either Scrubb, or maybe he could play Justise Winslow at point guard. Winslow is not a primary point guard by any means, but does have experience playing the position at the NBA level. He would likely be a member of that second team regardless.
Perhaps the Clips could go after a free agent, but the options are limited. If they want one I would go for Jeff Teague, due to his veteran presence. He can’t hold up for a lot of minutes though, but that may not matter with him playing in a backup role.
Regardless, it’s worth remembering that this is the same team who had the most injuries in the NBA last year, and still made the Western Conference Finals. This team has a mental edge most teams don’t, and they will survive this as well. It’s a setback, but the Clippers are bigger than this.