Festus Ezeli to Undergo Season-Ending Surgery on Injured Knee

Portland Trail Blazers big man Festus Ezeli's season has come to a premature end due to a knee injury. 

Trail Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey announced Ezeli will undergo surgery on his left knee some time next week, per NBA.com. 

This decision has been expected since December, when Shams Charania of The Vertical reported Ezeli was "likely" to undergo season-ending surgery. 

Injuries are nothing new for Ezeli. He played just 46 games in each of the last two years as a member of the Golden State Warriors and dealt with a knee injury before the 2016-17 campaign started, which forced him to miss significant time.

Ezeli went to Portland during the offseason after reaching the NBA Finals with the Warriors. He tallied career highs last season with 7.0 points and 5.6 rebounds per game and shot an impressive 54.8 percent from the field.

He signed with the Trail Blazers in July but didn't appear in a game due to lingering knee problems. 

The silver lining for Portland is the fact that it has other options to play center in its deep frontcourt. 

Meyers Leonard can stretch the floor and create matchup problems with his three-point shooting, while Noah Vonleh, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2014 draft, brings high upside that still has yet to materialize. Jusuf Nurkic, who was acquired in February, will also continue to play a critical role in the froncourt with Ezeli sidelined.

Portland is on the fringes of playoff contention, sitting 1.5 games behind the Denver Nuggets for the No. 8 seed, and has made it to this point without Ezeli. It won't be a difficult adjustment for head coach Terry Stotts to make.