Cade Cunningham's possible collapsed lung recovery time based on past NBA injuries
It's a bad injury for Cunningham, but how bad is it?
Cade Cunningham's possible collapsed lung recovery time based on past NBA injuries originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . The Detroit Pistons were rocked Thursday morning by the news that their star point guard Cade Cunningham will miss " an extended period of time " with a collapsed lung.
The news puts a dent in Detroit's hopes of clinching the top seed in the Eastern Conference and competing seriously for their first NBA title in 22 years. Cunningham was on track to lead the NBA in assists and garner All-NBA honors for the second successive season, but he is now just about certain to miss the 65-game cutoff for postseason awards honors after he suffered the pneumothorax in Tuesday's win over the Washington Wizards . However, the realistic timeline for Cunningham to return to action may not be as long as initially feared.
The average time lost to a collapsed lung is roughly 11 games Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes pointed out on X that there have been several cases where an NBA player has suffered a pneumothorax , an injury in which a puncture in the lung causes air to leak in between the lung and the chest wall. Gerald Wallace, Terrence Jones and CJ McCollum (twice) all have suffered this same injury. ESPN's Tim Bontemps recalled that McCollum, now playing for the Atlanta Hawks , missed six weeks with a collapsed lung in 2021 and three weeks with the injury in 2023.
Jones missed seven games with the injury in 2015, returning in time to contribute to the Houston Rockets ' run to the Western Conference finals. In 2009, Wallace suffered a 30-40 percent lung collapse and a rib fracture following a flagrant foul. He returned after seven games.