Cameron Payne’s foot surgery will likely have no effect on the Bulls rotation
C’mon, like he was really going to play that much anyway
According to Shams Charania of The Vertical, Bulls guard and salaried player for a professional basketball franchise Cameron Payne is set to undergo foot surgery and will be unable to play until the middle of November. The surgery will be on Payne’s right foot, which he’s broken twice before. The news represents another blow to Chicago’s point guard rotation, taking it from putrid to still putrid.
Payne’s foot has been a concern for a while now, ever since he missed a large chunk of time in Oklahoma City and his biggest contributions to wins were dancing with Russell Westbrook before games. Back in February, John Paxson had this to say about any medical concerns:
He’s broken it twice. We’ve obviously done our work. He’ll take the physical tomorrow. We’ll evaluate that even more tomorrow. But we got all the things we needed to do medically and we’re pretty confident about it.
Ok, John.
It was highly unlikely that Payne would be the starting point guard by the start of the season, and it was kind of unlikely that he’d even have the backup job. That’s how bad he was by the end of last season. In case something significant changes, we will in all likelihood see Kris Dunn in the starting role with Jerian Grant backing him up. Once Payne is back in action, he could potentially steal some minutes, but Zach LaVine will also be back up to full speed by then as well, and who knows if Fred Hoiberg will want to give him another shot at running the point.
All in all, it doesn’t look good for Payne’s chances to shine. I think I can speak for all Chicago Bulls enthusiasts when I say: ehh, whatever.
Sign-up for our Newsletter! Bulls Confidential in your inbox every Friday!!
