Versatile backup Nuggets forward suffers significant injury
Nov 21, 2024, 1:31 PM
The Denver Nuggets will be without one of their role players for the foreseeable future as Vlatko Cancar suffered an injury in Tuesday night’s contest against the Grizzlies.
The issue with Cancar’s knee will keep him out for quite a while according to Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.
“Not necessarily (season-ending). It could go a couple different ways. We’re still gathering information, letting the knee calm down a little bit,” Malone told reporters. “So I don’t want to get doom and gloom. But he’s out for the foreseeable future”
Cancar re-signed with the Nuggets this summer to stay in Denver for a sixth season. The 27-year-old missed all of last season due to an ACL tear but when he’s healthy he’s a do-it-all connecter that has proven to play well within the role he’s tasked for. Cacnar has also proven that he can step into a bigger gig, as he’s done alongside Luka Doncic for Slovenia.
Cancar was a contributor to the champion Nuggets, playing in 60 games, scoring five points a game on 37% shooting from deep with a few big-time dunks while adding an ability to connect many plays together. The Nuggets clearly missed the 6-8 player in their repeat bid. While he’s primarily played power forward, he’s played the two, three and five in the NBA too. In 2023-24, Cancar would’ve likely been the backup power forward and taken Jeff Green’s role from the year before. Without Cancar, Denver got a nice year from youngster Peyton Watson, but the team shortened their bench earlier into the season, which may have contributed to just how tired the team was in the playoffs.
Now it’s a similar situation for the Nuggets who have only gotten 34 minutes from Cancar thus far as he’s battled a separate injury. And that comes while rookie DaRon Holmes II will miss the whole season with an Achilles injury. This will put even more stress on Dario Saric and Zeke Nnaji who are struggling but with Nikola Jokic missing the last three games and Aaron Gordon out, Malone doesn’t have much of a choice.
“I’m not gonna go into all the details, but some different options will be on the table for Vlatko, and we’ll try to educate him,” Malone said about the injury.
