The New York Knicks’ battered core is on the mend. The team announced Wednesday morning that Jalen Brunson underwent successful surgery on his fractured left hand, and will be reevaluated in six to eight weeks. They also announced Bojan Bogdanovic had successful surgery on his left wrist and will be evaluated in six to eight weeks.
Brunson fractured his hand in the third quarter of the Knicks’ Game 7 loss to the Indiana Pacers and didn’t return to the game. It was a brutal loss in the middle of a brutal loss, but by that point, the Knicks were down by double-digits and the game was pretty much decided. Brunson’s injury was merely the final nail in the coffin.
Bogdanovic hadn’t been on the floor since the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers, when Nic Batum fell on his left ankle. The Knicks announced on April 30 that Bogdanovic “will undergo surgery on his left foot,” but it’s not clear if he has yet. The wrist surgery is related to an injury he sustained earlier in the season.
Injuries are what ultimately got the Knicks eliminated from the playoffs. They went into the series against the Pacers without Bogdanovic, Julius Randle, and Mitchell Robinson, and they only got more banged up as time went on. By Game 7, they simply had nothing left.
But that was then. Looking toward the future, they’re already making progress toward getting that strong core of players healthy for the 2024-2025 season.
