{"id":113035,"date":"2024-12-18T15:42:50","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T20:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=113035"},"modified":"2024-12-18T20:40:26","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T01:40:26","slug":"young-atlanta-hawks-guard-kobe-bufkin-season-ending-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/18\/young-atlanta-hawks-guard-kobe-bufkin-season-ending-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Atlanta Hawks Guard to Undergo Season-Ending Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/18\/hawks-deandre-hunter-nuggets-trade-targets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Atlanta Hawks<\/a> are 14-13 and own the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference. Additionally, they are fresh off a solid NBA Cup run, where they lost to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/18\/milwaukee-bucks-assistant-darvin-ham\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> in the semifinals. After finishing as the No. 10 seed last year and trading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murrade01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dejounte Murray<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/16\/pelicans-zion-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>, the Hawks have surprised many people. They are unlikely to pose a real threat in the playoffs, but they are playing solid basketball regardless. Unfortunately for the team, they will have to continue the rest of their campaign without one of their young guards. In a recent press release, the Hawks announced that second-year guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bufkiko01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kobe Bufkin<\/a> will miss the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury. According to the press release, Bufkin will undergo season-ending surgery, but he should be ready for the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">An <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/emoryhealthcare?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@emoryhealthcare<\/a> injury update:<\/p>\n<p>After continued evaluation and additional medical opinions, guard Kobe Bufkin and the Hawks have determined that Bufkin will undergo surgery to address right shoulder instability on January 7, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>He will miss the remainder of the 2024-25\u2026 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7hRSq0Z6DV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7hRSq0Z6DV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ATLHawks\/status\/1869469655943053585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Young Atlanta Hawks Guard to Undergo Season-Ending Surgery<\/h2>\n<h3>Kobe Bufkin&#8217;s Season Before the Injury<\/h3>\n<p>Bufkin, who the Hawks selected with the No. 15 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, missed the team&#8217;s first 14 games due to a shoulder injury. Additionally, he missed the Summer League because of a similar injury. In parts of two seasons in the NBA, Bufkin has only played 27 total games. Last season, the Michigan native averaged just 4.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. While a small sample size, Bufkin played a little better this season and earned more playing time. Prior to his injury, Bufkin averaged 5.3 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game.<\/p>\n<p>The second-year guard is a talented player. However, injuries have derailed his young career so far. When healthy, he is a very well-rounded player who has the capabilities of cracking the Hawks&#8217; starting lineup down the line. Unfortunately, it will have to take another season before the Hawks can give Bufkin another opportunity.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>There is a lot to like about the Hawks so far this season. Star guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trae Young<\/a> is having another fantastic season, averaging a league-leading 12.1 assists per game. Additionally, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/daniedy01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dyson Daniels<\/a>, who the Hawks acquired as part of the Murray deal, is having a breakout campaign. Daniels is averaging 3 steals per game, which leads the league.<\/p>\n<p>Many Hawks players have also been the subject of trade rumors. Most notably, veterans like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/capelca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clint Capela<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bogdabo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-12-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bogdan Bogdanovic<\/a> are realistic trade candidates. On the flip side, the Hawks reportedly have little interest in moving on from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/nancela02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Larry Nance<\/a> Jr., who will hit unrestricted free agency next season.<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks are a Play-In team at the moment, so it could make sense for the team to make some trades this season for a second-half push. At this point, nothing is imminent. However, the trade deadline is a little less than two months away. If the Hawks continue to play good basketball, they could find themselves active in the trade market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Hawks are 14-13 and own the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference. Additionally, they are fresh off a solid NBA Cup run, where they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the semifinals. After finishing as the No. 10 seed last year and trading Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans, the Hawks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":113036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1608,2,62,3],"tags":[4848],"class_list":["post-113035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","tag-kobe-bufkin"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113038,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113035\/revisions\/113038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}