Josh Howard, the centerpiece of the trade just over a week ago that sent Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson to Dallas, will miss the remainder of the year after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament in a first-quarter collision during the Wizards’ win over Chicago on Monday night.
In four games (three starts), Howard averaged 14.5 points and 3.3 rebounds.
Washington head coach Flip Saunders made the announcement after practice this morning. Surgery for Howard has not yet been scheduled.
“To the credit of our players, Josh went out, we were down ten, guys came back and played,” said Saunders. “So we’re still going to go out and compete. We’ll look around and bring somebody in because we’re really down numbers right now and try to bring in someone that’s going to blend in to how we’re playing.”
Now with just ten players – not counting Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Mike James — it’s par for the course for this season, eh?
“I’m numb to everything at this point,” said Saunders. “I think our guys are that way. You know what we’re going to do. We’re going to put five guys on the floor, and those five guys are going to go out and compete and play hard. If we do that, we’re going to give ourselves chances.”
“I feel bad for [Howard] because he was playing so well,” said Wizards president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld. “He’s high-energy, a very competitive, tough guy, and I feel for him because he was very excited for this situation, and we’re going to miss him, obviously. Other guys are going to have to step up. He only played seven minutes last night, and the other guys kept competing and playing hard, an that’s what we’re going to have to do. But we’ll look to bring in somebody, maybe from the NBDL or maybe bring in a free agent-type player, we’ll see who’s available. But it’s going to give other guys oppporutunities, but there’s no question Josh will be missed, his energy, enthusiasm and feistiness.”
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