Indiana sophomore OG Anunoby -- a lottery-level NBA prospect heading into the college basketball season -- suffered a knee injury on Wednesday in a game against Penn State and will miss the rest of the season, the team announced on Friday.
How will the injury affect his draft stock? I spoke with several NBA executives to get a clearer picture.
Anunoby was ranked at No. 13 on Big Board 2.0, widely projected by NBA scouts as a lock for the lottery before the injury.
The NBA executives I spoke with on Friday were taking a wait-and-see attitude, as Indiana hasn't disclosed the exact nature of the knee injury, besides saying Anunoby is expected to make a full recovery.
"It really depends on what the injury is," one longtime NBA executive told ESPN. "If it's something like a meniscus tear, I don't think it will have a major impact on his draft stock. He would be out a maximum of three months and would be ready to go for NBA workouts and the draft combine.
"If it's an ACL tear or a microfracture, I think it would have a much bigger effect on his draft stock."
The other sources I spoke with concurred that an ACL or microfracture injury would be a setback.
"You're really talking about him missing a full year of basketball at that point," one NBA executive said. "And teams will be a bit wary because they won't be the ones supervising the surgery or the rehab. This draft is loaded with great prospects, and I think the injury would cause him to drop down at least one draft tier if there were healthier options available."
Significant knee injuries to top prospects aren't a new thing. In 2013, Nerlens Noel -- at the time projected as the top prospect in the 2013 draft -- tore his ACL in February. He dropped six spots in the draft and had to sit out his entire rookie season.
In 2015, Syracuse forward Chris McCullough tore his ACL in January. He slid from No. 24 on our Big Board at the time to being selected No. 29 on draft night by the Brooklyn Nets.
The executives I spoke with forecasted a similar slip in Anunoby's draft stock if the injury is an ACL tear. They all projected he'd fall into the No. 17-25 range, instead of the No. 10-15 range, where he was projected before the injury -- assuming he declares for the draft this year.
If the injury is less serious, they don't see any real movement in his draft ranking.
For the time being we've moved Anunoby from No. 13 to No. 17 in our updated Top 100 and will make more adjustments after NBA teams learn the extent of the injury and the outcome of his surgery.