Damyean Dotson had shoulder surgery

While most of our attention was turned toward the draft and who will be a Knick this June, a little bit of news may have slipped in under the radar. The inimitable Shams Charania tweeted out this afternoon that Damyean Dotson had to have shoulder surgery. Thankfully he will be back in action when it starts to really count.

A torn labrum isn’t the end of the world or anything. It can go untreated and you or I might be fine, but for a professional athlete ya oughta get that thing fixed up. It’s too bad Dotson will have to play catch up a little bit when he comes back, but hopefully his conditioning will be tip top.

That brings up the issue of whether or not Damyean will be retained for his rather small (in NBA terms) $1.6m salary. Scott Perry and the gang still have to make a decision on whether they want to guarantee his contract or not. That million and change in space might help them as they chase some bigger fish, and I can see a world where the front office believes they can replicate Dotson’s contributions elsewhere.

For Dotson fans, he did show legitimate improvement and was one of the steadiest contributors for David Fizdale and the Knicks all year. A torn labrum certainly could have explained some of his wobbly shooting near the end of the season. I’d bet Dotson would look a lot better around some top flight teammates. Wishing D-Dot a speedy recovery.