Jazz a great man Kyle Filipowski had surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back in the summer, president of basketball operations Austin Ainge said at Media Day on September 28 (Link to Twitter via the JP Chunga podcast team). At the time, Ainge added that Filipowski had been cleared to attend training camp.
“I’m back to normal and better than last year“, Filipovsky said at the Media Day (story via Eric Spiropoulos from the team’s website). “The timing of the surgery was after the season and I worked hard all summer to recover and get better.”
However, the 2024 second-round pick has been held out of both of the Jazz’s preseason games this fall due to a lower back injury and the head coach Will Hardy Shreyas Ladda of The Salt Lake Tribune suggested that Filipovski was still off the court on Saturday (Link to video on Twitter).
“He is developing well” Hardy said of Filipowski.”(We) hope he will come back to us soon. I know “quick” is an understatement, but he’s taking the necessary steps to get back on the court.
“I know he really wants to come back. It’s been a long summer of rehab and hopefully he’ll be back there soon.”
Filipowski, who was drafted 32nd overall a couple of years ago after two seasons in college at Duke, played in 77 games for Utah last season, including 41 starts. The 6’11” center forward averaged 11.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.6 rebounds and 0.9 steals in 23.4 minutes per game, with a .492/.325/.750 slash line.
While the Jazz plan to have a relatively crowded frontcourt when they are at full strength, that is not the case at the moment. In addition to Filipowski being sidelined, the starting center Yusuf Nurkich recently suffered a toe injury and miss at least four weeks.
Jackson Hayes, Mo Bamba and Jaren Jackson Jr are among the Jazz’s options in the middle with Nurkic and Filipovski.