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NBA.com's David Aldridge reported today on Twitter that Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut will not return to the 2016 NBA Finals after suffering a knee injury in Game 5.
Not long after that, ESPN's Marc Stein followed that up by tweeting that Bogut suffered multiple bone bruises and will be out 6-8 weeks to recover although he will not require knee surgery.
Hearing Andrew Bogut will not require surgery, but projected recovery time will take him out for rest of Finals.
— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) June 15, 2016
As @daldridgetnt reported earlier, Bogut will NOT require surgery. But the multiple bone bruises suffered will keep him out 6-to-8 weeks.
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 15, 2016
Bogut suffered the injury during the third quarter of Game 5 after awkwardly falling on top of Cleveland Cavaliers wing J.R. Smith after a blocked shot in the third quarter. The Warriors originally announced during the game that he had suffered a left knee sprain and would not return to Game 5.
For those who see this as cause for (more) panic, consider that this is extremely familiar territory: Warriors coach Steve Kerr chose to start Andre Iguodala and sit Bogut for Games 5 and 6 of the 2015 NBA Finals after the big man had been largely ineffective through the first four games, playing less than three minutes in Game 4. In other words, they came back from a 2-1 deficit essentially without Bogut last year.
The one true center who played in Game 6 last year was Ezeli: 10 points, 4 rebounds in 11 minutes off bench. Warriors could use that in '16.
— Carl Steward (@stewardsfolly) June 15, 2016
During last year's series, it was a combination of Festus Ezeli and David Lee who stepped up to fill Bogut's minutes at center. This year, some combination of Ezeli, Marreese Speights, Anderson Varejao, and even James Michael McAdoo figure to fill some of those frontcourt minutes based on playing time thus far this series — regardless of your opinion of David Lee, the Warriors are pretty well-positioned to find options to fill in for Bogut's role in this series, all 12 minutes per game.
For now, let's just hope that Bogut is able to fully recover this offseason and come back strong next season.