Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to miss time with plantar fasciitis

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be out for an extended time with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, per Bryan Keating of KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City.

“I don’t want to use long-term because it’s vague, but it’s not day-to-day,” coach Mark Daigneault told reporters. “It’s going to be a more significant amount of time than day-to-day. This one is an injury that we need to now take a look at.”

Daigneault described the injury as “a little bit more cumulative,” rather than something that happened on one play. He added that the extent of the injury was just discovered on Wednesday. He noted that Gilgeous-Alexander is a “higher-minute player” and said the condition is a result of wear and tear on the foot.

“I think he walked in this morning and that’s when we started to kinda unpack it,” Daigneault said. “I don’t have a ton of detail on it to be honest with you. It’s happened pretty quickly today.”

Daigneault said the team was hoping to avoid this type of injury by aggressively resting players. He pointed out that players are coming off a short offseason after participating in the resumption last summer, and they’re facing a shorter-than-normal break once this season ends.

Gilgeous-Alexander has emerged as a star since being traded to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2019. He’s averaging a career-high 23.7 points per game this year and shooting 41.8% from three-point range.