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With the Portland Trail Blazers off to a shaky start to the season, backwards look to last year’s Western Conference Finals teams are inevitable. Among the names most longed-for among Blazers fans is power forward Al-Farouq Aminu, a team player willing to play defense and sacrifice his personal game for victories.
The wistful wishing ignores the reality that—like Zach Collins, Jusuf Nurkic, and Rodney Hood—Aminu has spent most of the year on the bench with a torn meniscus in his right knee. He hasn’t suited up for the Orlando Magic since November 29th. Now ESPN is reporting that his absence may be extended due to a setback in practice this week.
Orlando Magic forward Al-Farouq Aminu suffered a setback in his recovery from a knee injury and will be reevaluated, according to coach Steve Clifford.
Aminu, who has a torn meniscus in his right knee but opted against surgery, has been sidelined since late November.
Clifford told reporters Friday that Aminu’s knee locked up during Thursday’s practice and that the veteran forward is having trouble bending it.
Aminu is averaging 4.8 rebounds in 21.1 minutes per game with the Magic this season, but only 4.3 points on 29.1% shooting from the field, 25.0% shooting from the arc. Those are light years below the numbers from his Trail Blazers tenure.