Dante Exum missed his sixth straight game with an on-going knee tendinitis issue when the Utah Jazz began a five-game road stand in Brooklyn on Monday. The Australian is inching closer to a return, however, according to Utah coach Quin Snyder.
Exum was doing shooting drills with Utah assistant coaches at the team's shoot around in Manhattan on Monday morning, but the team will hold him out for at least the next couple of games being being re-evaluated later in the week.
"Dante is going to be re-evaluated later this week," Snyder said.
"As soon as he's able to get back there we'll have an opportunity to discuss that and see where it takes us, but right now, it's unfortunate. It's not bad, but he's had some severe tendinitis which, the timing is not good for him, it's not good for us [because] George Hill has been out.
"He's doing some stuff on the court now and getting better. It's part of the process, and I know it's something that can be discouraging, but we know how to deal with it."
The injury is just the latest setback for Exum to overcome; he missed the entire 2015-16 NBA season recovering from a torn ACL suffered in an exhibition game against Slovenia in August 2015.
Exum made his return to the Jazz for the 2016 preseason, with the team electing not to put him on a minutes restriction but preferring to let him play while being mindful of his playing load.
Snyder said pregame that he didn't expect Exum to be on a minutes restriction once he returned from his tendinitis issues.
"We'll continue to be aware," he said. "More than anything it's just gauging where he is from a pain standpoint, and you don't want to do anything that can make it worse. As much as anything it's precautionary to make sure he's going in the right direction."
Prior to the injury Exum had been averaging 6.4 points and 1.7 assists per game in just over 21 minutes per night.