DaQuan Jeffries is one of the feel good stories for the Sacramento Kings. He spent most of last season in the G League on a two-way contract, but his play in the bubble earned him a promotion and a two-year contract with the Kings' NBA squad.
The 23-year-old forward logged 12 minutes in the Kings' preseason opener, but then missed the rest of the exhibition schedule with a sore lower back. On Tuesday afternoon, Jeffries, who was on the mend and cleared to practice, had another major setback.
Jeffries suffered ankle injury that required an MRI and according to a league source, the results came back Wednesday morning as a Grade 3 left ankle sprain, which will keep him out of action for the foreseeable future.
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Shams Charania of The Athletic was first with the news.
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"We had him playing 3-on-3 today and he came down on someone's ankle," coach Luke Walton said. "He rolled it. He will not be coming with us to Houston and it's unfortunate because he was just getting back to being cleared again. But it's a long season. He'll help us and we'll need him as this thing goes."
A Grade 3 sprain is a complete tear of the ligament. De'Aaron Fox suffered a similar injury last season and missed 17 games and a little over six weeks of action, but his healing time was considered abnormally fast. The typical healing time for this type of injury is 8-12 weeks.
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The Kings had high hopes for Jeffries coming into the season, but this setback will cost him major time, especially with the compacted 2020-21 schedule.
Sacramento has depth at both forward positions, but Jeffries was considered a rotational player when he initially suffered his back injury. He'll have to heal up and then fight his way back into the lineup once he's ready to compete.