Injuries Sideline Big Names

A pair of NBL23 stars have had to put their 2023 NBA Summer League debuts on hold, according to ESPN Insider Olgun Uluc, who says the expectation is that Sam Waardenburg and Keanu Pinder will feature later in the tournament.

Waardenburg – the inaugural NBL Next Generation Award winner – was sidelined from Minnesota’s opening game, while Pinder was also absent from Phoenix’s active roster in the Suns' opening game.

“He has a back injury,” Uluc said of Pinder. “It doesn’t seem to be anything that’s serious in any way.

“Sam Waardenburg with the Timberwolves is another guy who has a little niggle too with a knee injury. There’s an expectation he’ll come back too.

“There’s a hope we see these guys on the floor sooner rather than later.”

While Waardenburg and Pinder are both, hopefully, amping themselves up for the remainder of Summer League, reigning NBL MVP Xavier Cooks looks set to be all but finished for the tournament.

Cooks played 20 minutes in Washington’s opening Summer League clash – an eight-point loss to Indiana.

He scored 11 points, grabbed seven boards and added two assists.

“That was the expectation going into the tournament – that we would see Xav Cooks once or twice,” Uluc said of Cooks’ limited court time.

“We even saw today (day two) it was sort of limited minutes and we saw him towards the end of the game.

“He showed why he’s a guaranteed guy in this league, then he probably shuts it down.”