San Antonio Spurs big man Zach Collins is scheduled to have surgery on what the team calls a torn labrum in his right shoulder. The Spurs are expecting Collins to be fully recovered at the start of the 2024-25 season, per the team's press release.
The sixth-year pro, who's been in the NBA for seven seasons but missed the 2020-21 season because of injury, left San Antonio's season finale at the 10:50 mark of Sunday's win vs. the Detroit Pistons. He suffered a dislocated shoulder and did not return. An MRI taken since led to the team's announcement.
In this third season with the Silver and Black, Collins started the year at center next to generational talent Victor Wembanyama. About a third of the way through, the team shifted Wemby to center, moving Collins to the bench where he'd serve as the first “big” to enter as a reserve.
He averaged 11.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists – all slightly down from the career year he enjoyed the season before. Though he played in six more games than in 2022-2o23, his 32% shooting from three-point range was down nearly five and a half percentage points from last season and marked his worst since shooting 31% in that category as a rookie in 2017-'18 with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Zach Collins' experience with injuries
Collins tore his left labrum early in his third NBA season, causing him to miss four months in Portland. A little more than a year later, he injured his left foot and missed an entire season that was shortened by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. It would prove the beginning of a season and a half without basketball for the Gonzaga product.
Signed by the Spurs in August of 2021, Collins was still recovering from the re-fracturing of the foot. He made his Silver and Black debut in late January of 2022. He finished that season with a team that went 34-48 and lost in their first game of the NBA's play-in tournament.
Collins' time with Spurs
Sustaining only minor injuries inside of the last two seasons, Collins has became a mainstay in the Spurs rotation.
In 2002-23 he played in 63 games, starting 26. His 11.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists, 51.8 field goal percentage and 37.4 percentage from beyond the arc all proved career highs. The Spurs, though, transitioned through a 22-60 record that served as the third worst in franchise history.
With Wembanyama in the mix this season, the Spurs matched that won/loss same record – though in peculiar fashion. Well behind last year's pace, they played their best ball down the stretch while shorthanded. Collins was one of their few regulars who stayed healthy during that stint – until the finale vs. the Pistons.
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