Kevin Huerter on the mend, Domantas Sabonis lands on Netflix

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The dog days of summer are ticking by slowly. It has been a quiet couple of weeks, outside of Domantas Sabonis’ youth camp last weekend, but we have a few additional items to go over. 

An injury update

The season ended early for Kings guard Kevin Huerter when his left shoulder popped out of the socket one minute and 51 seconds into the team’s 121-111 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on March 18. 

Huerter wasn’t having his best season, but his absence was felt over the final 15 games of the season as the Kings struggled to a 7-8 record down the stretch. The loss of Huerter was compounded when Malik Monk went down six games later with a knee sprain.

The Kings announced on Mar. 21 that Huerter had not only dislocated his left shoulder but also tore his labrum. On Apr. 3, the team announced that Dr. Neal ElAttrache at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles had performed successful surgery on the labrum tear. 

On Friday, the team sent out an official update on Huerter’s progress.

There are a couple of interesting pieces to this update. First and foremost, the Kings describe Huerter as a “forward,” not a guard. Huerter started 134 games at shooting guard for Sacramento over the last two years, but at 6-foot-7, he has the potential to move to small forward. It’s possible this was a mistake. Perhaps it is foreshadowing. 

In addition to a possible positional change, Huerter has been “cleared for on-court workouts, shooting drills and a complete strength training program,” but he won’t be re-evaluated until mid-October to see if he can resume “full contact court activity.”