The NBA has been full of ups and downs lately with numerous tier one players shifting teams this offseason like Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, Isaiah Thomas, Paul Millsap, Chris Paul, and Gordon Hayward. Next season in the NBA will also feature new in-game rules to improve game flow and a new revamped Regular Season schedule to address resting players issues. Here are a couple of more updates on the free agency scene in the NBA this offseason:
Cameron Payne undergoes another foot surgery
Cameron Payne entered the NBA in 2015 where he was drafted with the 14th overall pick by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2015 NBA draft.
Even before he was drafted in the NBA Cameron Payne has already had issues with injury has he got suffered a broken ring finger on his non-shooting hand during the pre-draft workouts in the offseason. In his rookie year, he played a total of 57 games averaging 5 points, 0.6 steals, two assists, and 1.6 rebounds while shooting 41 percent from the field, 32.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 79.2 percent from the charity stripe.
Bulls guard Cameron Payne will undergo surgery on his right foot and be sidelined until late November, league sources tell The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 30, 2017
In his second season, he suffered a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot before the season began on July 25, 2016, but he quickly recovered and was still able to attend the Thunders training camp that offseason.
But on September 27 he suffered another an acute fracture of his fifth metatarsal in his right foot, this leads him to miss the first few months of the NBA 2016-2017 season. Later that year he was then traded to the Chicago Bulls as part of the McDermott and Gibson package. He only played a total of 31 games last season. Now heading into the 2017-2018 season, he suffers yet again another injury on his right foot that will cause him to miss the first few months of the 2017-2018 NBA season as reported by Shams Charania of The Vertical.
Bulls throw Cameron Payne under the bus
With Cameron Payne's recent injury issues it seems like the Bulls front office are also criticizing the playing talent of the young guard this offseason. Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times has reported that sources close to the Bulls front office have said that Camron Payne can not play on the NBA level, they further added that it only took two practices to know how bad Cameron Payne was and that in his current state he should not yet be in the NBA.
The source also said that even Garret Forman himself said that Cameron Payne did not have enough talent to play in the NBA. With these comments made by the Chicago Bulls front office, it seems likely that this will be the last year we see Cameron Payne in a Chicago Bulls uniform.
