The Atlanta Hawks announced Wednesday that forward Mouhamed Gueye underwent surgery to repair a fractured left foot and will be reevaluated in three to four months, per the team’s statement shared by Lauren L. Williams of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Gueye broke the foot during a workout last Wednesday and had the procedure Tuesday.
The math on that timeline is unforgiving. A reevaluation window of mid-October to mid-November means Gueye misses all of training camp and the preseason, and the reevaluation date is not a return date — it is the day doctors decide whether he can start working back. A realistic return lands somewhere in the season’s second month at the earliest.
That stings because of what Gueye had become. The 6’11” big appeared in 77 games last season with eight starts, averaging 4.4 points and 3.6 rebounds in 15.3 minutes, and he played in all six of Atlanta’s first-round playoff games against the Knicks as the primary backup center while Jock Landale nursed an ankle injury. For a third-year player on a $2.4 million team option — exercised last month, non-guaranteed until January — that playoff trust was the clearest sign the development plan was working.
The timing is rough on both sides of the ledger. Gueye is extension-eligible throughout 2026/27 and reaches unrestricted free agency next summer if no deal gets done, so a lost autumn shrinks the window he has to prove he deserves one. And the injury lands squarely on the position the front office has spent the summer trying to reinforce: Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported in late June that Atlanta was working the trade market for a center to support Onyeka Okongwu, and the team re-signed Landale earlier this offseason. The internal depth answer at the five just went on the shelf until winter, which makes that external search harder to put off.
For fantasy purposes, Gueye can be ignored in redraft leagues until at least December — he was a deep-league name even at full health. Dynasty managers should hold with expectations in check and watch the contract-year dynamics once he returns. The near-term winners are whoever claims backup-center minutes behind Okongwu in camp, though any trade addition at the position would shrink that opportunity quickly.
