Rondae Hollis-Jefferson warming up without a walking boot. pic.twitter.com/DMQ1EfDane
— devin kharpertian (@uuords) January 15, 2016
Here’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson warming up in Barclays Center without a walking boot for the first time since initially breaking a bone in his right ankle, shooting set shots with Nets assistant coach Jim Sann guarding him.
To be clear, Hollis-Jefferson has had the boot on and off recently. But this is the first time he’s warmed up without the boot at the arena. In a dismal season for the Nets, the rookie was one of the team’s few bright spots, showing off a defensive tenacity and knack for rebounding.
Hollis-Jefferson hasn’t played since December 4th, against the New York Knicks, after sustaining a fracture of the posterior talus in his right ankle. After surgery, the timeline for Hollis-Jefferson’s return was set at 8 to 12 weeks, with then-coach Lionel Hollins calling it ten weeks in a press conference. That puts Hollis-Jefferson’s return around the All-Star Break in mid-February.
In 19 games (14 starts), Hollis-Jefferson posted averages of 5.2 points and 6.1 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per game, posting the league’s best Defensive Real Plus-Minus (a stat developed by ESPN to value per-possession defense) before his injury.
