The Houston Rockets backcourt will be forced to shuffle the pieces as point guard Patrick Beverley is expected to miss three weeks with a knee injury, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.
Beverley will undergo a minor surgical scope in his left knee early next week, but is bound to miss the same amount of time whether he chooses to get arthroscopic surgery or not.
This is about on par with previous reports, as Houston Chronicle beat writer Jonathan Feigen reported that head coach Mike D'Antoni estimated he could miss up to 20 games with the injury.
D'Antoni said he expects Beverley to miss 20 games. As mentioned previously, timetable about same with or without arthroscopic surgery.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) October 22, 2016
“I hate it for Pat. He worked so hard to get ready,” D'Antoni told Feigen. “I hate it for us a lot. The first 20 games are tough. It would be nice to have him.”
The loss of Beverley represents a huge hole on the defensive end, as he and Trevor Ariza are the anchors of Houston's perimeter defense.
According to Feigen, D'Antoni plans to have James Harden or Eric Gordon on the floor at all times.
Tyler Ennis, who the Rockets traded for last month, could see an uptick in minutes as 39-year-old Pablo Prigioni performs better when he goes in the game for shorter stretches.
Patrick Beverley has suffered his share of injuries before, only playing more than 56 games in a season once during his four-year career. The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 9.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.3 steals per game while making 40 percent of his shots from deep last season.
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