Sacramenton Kings shooting guard Zach LaVine will miss the remainder of the season due to surgery on his right hand, per NBA insider Chris Haynes.
LaVine had missed the Kings’ last three games with what was described as a tendon injury in his right fifth (pinky) finger on the NBA injury report.
LaVine, who turns 31 years old on March 10, has played 12 NBA seasons for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago Bulls and Kings. He’s averaged 20.7 points per game over his career while making back-to-back All-Star Games in 2021 and 2022.
He’s perhaps best known for being a two-time Slam Dunk Contest champion, including an epic battle with Aaron Gordon in the 2016 competition. It’s near-indisputably the best slam dunk battle to ever take place and may never be topped.
LaVine was the subject of trade rumors this season but ultimately stayed in Sacramento. He has a $49 million player option for next season.
Hopefully LaVine is 100 percent healthy ASAP and good to go for 2026-27.
In the meantime, the Kings take another blow in a season where they might be destined to finish as the league’s worst team.
The Kings have lost 14 straight games to drop to 12-44. They’ve struggled with LaVine (9-30) and without him (3-14) this year but might have a bit more trouble sans their top scorer (19.2 PPG).
That being written, the Kings frankly don’t have any real incentive to keep winning at this point. This year’s NBA draft looks loaded on paper, with a clear top four of Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Duke’s Cameron Boozer and UNC’s Caleb Wilson.
Sacramento would be well in position to land one of those four in the lottery and in fact would be guaranteed a top-five pick at worst if it has the NBA’s worst record, per Tankathon.