Rockets guard/forward Chase Budinger is expected to see some solid playing time this season with the trade of last year’s small forward starter, Trevor Ariza, to the Hornets, but a moderate to severe ankle sprain suffered on September 2nd meant there would be a slow start out of the gate.
Rockets coach Rick Adelman didn’t reveal much about where Budinger is at in practice, saying that he just “sees him shooting and he sits on the side”, so we caught up with Chase on Wednesday about his status.
“It’s coming around,” said Chase about his left ankle. “It’s getting better. I’m just trying to work on getting it back to 100% before I get back on the court.”
Budinger said he’s able to practice, but he’s not able to scrimmage just yet.
“I can pretty much do everything except for the contact stuff,” said Budinger. “When they start doing contact 5-on-5, I’ll go to another court, give it a shot and work on my own game so I don’t lose too much conditioning.”