Eric Moreland has only appeared in five games this season, all appearances happening during garbage time of games. Moreland is still a young and raw player that is trying to make his way into an NBA rotation, but this process will stall for the time being as it has been reported that the former Oregon State Beaver has suffered a broken foot during yesterday’s Kings practice.
He is reported out indefinitely
Although this injury will not affect the current rotation that George Karl has in place for Sacramento, it’s another setback that Moreland can put on his list of obstacles that he has faced so far in his young NBA career.
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Moreland also caught the injury bug last season, as he suffered a shoulder injury midway through the season that ended up sidelining the once rookie for the rest of the year.
Since the 2014 NBA Summer League games, I always been a fan of Moreland. He continues to give hope in the Summer League games that he can eventually become a rotation player on an NBA team (hopefully with Sacramento). In the 2014 Summer League, Moreland averaged 3.5 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks a game. Also in 2015, Moreland averaged 6.4 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks a contest as well (per Basketball Real GM).
Moreland has the ability to become a high-energy shot blocker in the NBA, similar to a Willie Cauley-Stein kind of player. However, these injuries that he has faced in his brief professional career have greatly delayed the process of him achieving his potential.
There is no concrete timetable for Moreland to return back to action, but a broken foot usually takes significant time to recover. With the Kings just passing the quarter mark of the season (25 games), Moreland looks to miss some playing time, practice time, and a lot of potential progress that he could of made if healthy.
Moreland is the second Kings big man on the injury report currently, as Cauley-Stein is still nursing a finger injury he endured two weeks ago against the Boston Celtics. Cauley-Stein is due to return as short as in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the recovery process of these two young rim protectors will go smoothly.