PAYNE HAS SURGERY
Cameron Payne had surgery for a Jones fracture in his right foot on Monday.
Anthony Slater
The Thunder’s tough offseason continued on Monday afternoon, as point guard Cameron Payne had surgery for a Jones fracture in his right foot.
Payne is coming off an encouraging rookie season. But throughout the year, he experienced some discomfort. He was able to play through it deep into the playoffs, but the team kept him in a walking boot after practices starting in mid-March.
Payne’s discomfort has been minimal the past few months, enabling him to compete in summer league at the start of July, where he was the leading scorer — at 18.8 points per game — among all players in Orlando. But further testing continued to indicate an issue that could become a bigger problem down the road.
So with plenty of time to spare before training camp — and a much larger load expected for Payne in his second season — the team chose to be proactive and get the surgery done.
It’s the same type of fracture (Jones) that Kevin Durant had back before the 2014-15 season. Durant was initially given a 6-8 week timetable and returned at the front end of that. But complications with the screw in his foot and an eventual re-fracture forced him to get two additional surgeries and miss 55 games that season.
The Thunder’s hope is that Payne will have no such complications. If he doesn’t, Payne is expected to be ready for training camp, which begins in late September.