The Utah Jazz currently sit in the eighth spot in the Western Conference more than a third of the way through the season but they hoped to be better than their 12-16 record. Part of the reason for the Jazz underperforming has been the injury to Rudy Gobert which has forced him to miss half of the teams games but he is working his way back now. While Gobert is on his way back the Jazz will likely be without their top bench scorer for an extended period of time as Alec Burks is out indefinitely, according to Bill Lea of NBA.com.
Burks was injured after being fouled on a drive to the basket on Saturday against the Los Angeles Clippers. Burks sustained a concussion and an MRI revealed a fractured fibula which will likely keep him out a while. Officially the team is just saying that Burks is out indefinitely but different reports suggest he will be out about six to eight weeks. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports that Burks is expected to miss a minimum of six weeks.
Burks will not require surgery on the broken bone but will be missed by a Utah Jazz team that can ill afford to lose any more key contributors. Burks was in a competition with Rodney Hood this offseason for the starting shooting guard spot and ultimately lost that spot but he has played big minutes off the bench and is third in the NBA in bench scoring at 14.3 points per game which is also third on the team and a career high.
Burks is a 25 year old shooting guard in his fifth NBA season out of the University of Colorado that has made himself into a solid scorer in the league. Burks only played in 27 games last season as he was dealing with a shoulder injury but looked to be fully healthy this season before this latest setback. Burks was one of only three Jazz players to have appeared in every game but now he joins the list of players that will have to miss significant time including Gobert and Dante Exum who tore his ACL in the offseason.
While Burks is out Elijah Millsap and Joe Ingles will likely see more minutes behind Hood at the shooting guard spot. Ingles has appeared in all but one game so far this season but is averaging just 12.4 minutes in those games while Millsap has largely been out of the rotation so far this season.
