The LA Clippers had a clean injury report for two consecutive games, and while their entire rotation remains intact, the team announced on Thursday that young center Moussa Diabate has a fractured hand. The official injury diagnosis is a right hand metacarpal fracture for Diabate, which will unfortunately keep him sidelined from G-League games as well.
A source tells AllClippers that Diabate is still awaiting an expected timeline from a hand specialist, as injuries like this can vary in how long they keep players out. For now, Diabate is expected to miss at least a few weeks.
One of LA's two-way players, Diabate has been great at the G-League level since getting drafted, averaging 15.9 PPG and 12.3 RPG for the Ontario Clippers last season. While the Clippers are now set with their center rotation, that was not the case last year, which gave Diabate some opportunities at the NBA level.
Making the most of these opportunities, Diabate showed some great stuff in limited minutes for the Clippers last season, but never had much of a path to minutes once the team traded for Mason Plumlee. When Plumlee got injured at the beginning of this season, the Clippers quickly signed Daniel Theis after his buyout with the Pacers, which now leaves them with two capable backup centers.
While Diabate would not have seen any rotation minutes at the NBA level this season, unless something very unexpected happened, this is still a tough break for the young center. Having come along nicely in the G-League, Diabate will be sidelined for a bit.
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