Sunday NBA Fix: Injuries Old And New As Camp Rolls In
By Phil Watson
Welcome to the Sunday NBA Fix for Sept. 28, where injuries—some carrying over from last year and some already starting this season—are already starting to define the early parts of training camp and the preseason.
Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, whose injured knee has defined each of the team’s last two seasons, is out for up to two months after breaking his left hand in a fall.
Tyreke Evans of the New Orleans Pelicans is out for three to five weeks with a hamstring he strained while playing pickup ball. Not good news for a Pels’ squad that didn’t have a single player healthy for all 82 games last season.
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Then there are the lingering side effects from old injuries. Rookie of the Year
Michael Carter-Williamsof the Philadelphia 76ers hasn’t been
after shoulder surgery. Atlanta Hawks big man
Al Horfordcannot yet
as he returns from a torn pectoral muscle.
Injuries are a big deal in the NBA. It’s the nature of the beast. In a sport where a team can be defined or ill-defined, as the case may be, by one or two standout performers, the damage done by injuries to key personnel can be devastating.
Look no further than the Chicago Bulls—who have had three consecutive seasons dramatically altered by the fragile knees of former MVP Derrick Rose.
The Denver Nuggets can attest to this—they went from 57 wins to 36 last year primarily because someone was either breaking something or straining something every time the wind blew … or so it seemed at times.
The Milwaukee Bucks—not so good to begin with—headed south bound and down in the standings when Larry Sanders, Ersan Ilyasova and others struggled to stay healthy enough to play.
And it’s certain no one who follows the Los Angeles Lakers needs to be reminded what havoc injuries can wreak on a season, not after a year in which Kobe Bryant only managed to find his way onto the court six times.
It’s one of the reasons I’m hesitant to anoint Kyrie Irving a star. Yes, he was the MVP of the FIBA World Cup, the MVP of the 2014 NBA All-Star Game and is a former Rookie of the Year. But the next time he misses fewer than 11 games in a season will be the first.
In his first three seasons in the league, Irving has missed 15, 23 and 11 games.
Can a guy really be a star if he’s not in uniform 49 times in a three-season span?
Or, to put it in the form of a bad country-western lyric, how can we remember you if you never seem to show up?
Here’s a division-by-division look at what’s making news around the association: