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Tyreke Evans Ruled out vs. Thunder with Ankle Injury

Scott Polacek

Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans will miss Saturday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with a sore left ankle, according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.

This is another setback for Evans, who underwent knee surgery in February and played just 25 games last season. His first game this season didn't come until December, and he was later part of the package the New Orleans Pelicans traded to the Kings in exchange for DeMarcus Cousins.

Evans won the 2009-10 Rookie of the Year for the Kings with 20.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. While those numbers represented career-highs, he had never averaged fewer than 14.5 points a night in his career. However, that could change in 2016-17, as he is posting 13.5 points per game for the Kings and only posted 9.5 points per contest with the Pelicans.

Evans can still stretch the floor with his outside shooting and attack the basket off the bounce, but he is more of a role player at this point.

The Kings will likely rely on Buddy Hield on the wing until Evans is ready to return. Both Ben McLemore and Arron Afflalo are also missing Saturday's game, per Jones.

While Sacramento has enough pieces to fill in for Evans, it could use him back and providing a scoring punch off the bench down the stretch.  

   

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