Tari Eason out 2-3 weeks with stress fracture

The Houston Rockets received some bad news in advance of the start of the NBA regular season when the Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen reported that second-year forward Tari Eason will miss the next two to three weeks with a stress fracture in his leg.

Eason missed Houston’s final preseason game against the Miami Heat and the injury was initially expected to be minor, but that was before the discovery of the stress fracture.

Eason was expected to begin the season as the primary backup to Jabari Smith Jr. at power forward, and while he was out against Miami, it was Uncle Jeff Green who primarily absorbed his minutes, and that will be the most likley route for Ime Udoka to take to begin the season. We’ll also see some Jae’Sean Tate at the four, and the subsequent dominoe effect might even open up some early-season minutes for Cam Whitmore and some additional time for veteran Reggie Bullock.

It’s not an ideal situation for a Rockets team looking to get off to a fast start, but thankfully, the Rockets appear to have the depth at forward to handle it on a short-term basis.