Eh. This probably wont affect him on a chronic level for decades if at all. It wasn't a bad enough injury to require serious repairs or removals. Definitely not enough that I'd be worried about chronic issues while he is playing. And if we're honest, if he makes it with us long enough for this to be a problem (10+ years), he has had a successful career!
+ he has a great vague injury now that he can whip out and talk about treating whenever trades talks fire up.
Its going to be humerous looking back on these trade Zo scenarios once the season starts. Zo is a 6'6 basketball savant, he just has to keep developing and remain healthy.
All I'm saying is you can't just sweep it under the rug and say it's a routine scope, especially when he's still a kid that is developing and when it comes to preventive medicine, you need a stronger body to help prevent injuries like this. He can rehab the knee and get it back to baseline, but we all hoped he would get stronger this summer to prevent future injuries, all while work on clear deficiencies in his game. It's not all bad tho... Russ, Wall and Ky are just a few guard examples where their entire game is based on athleticism and they have had knee injuries/surgical repairs, yet they are allstars and still putting up numbers. But they are largely known as scoring guards that play little to no notable defense. Zo can't rely on his jumper yet, and even though court awareness/vision isn't necessarily reliant on athleticism, his defense certainly is. The day will surely come where those dudes' games will fall off a cliff. Their saving grace is that their knee woes happened 4-5 years after they joined the league and as a result they got paid. Zo's occurred during his rookie campaign and when you compare how much he needs his athleticism on the defensive side of the ball, it still is concerning no matter how small and routine the injury can be considered in the NBA (and this after years of duress and accumulated scar tissue on articulating joints like the knee).
I'm not brushing it under the rug though, I'm saying it's not that big of a deal. In the scheme of surgeries, a scope isn't debilitating or degenerative. John Wall's injury in 2012 was a stress injury which is far more frightening than an acute injury like Lonzo's. A stress injury is a lot more indicative of some sort of structural or biological issue. Then of course he got a scope in 2016 on both knees to remove loose bodies in a similar type of surgery to what Lonzo got. Just an educated guess, but the stress reaction caused when Wall was younger likely lead to some bodies being loosened/shaved off/etc over time which caused some discomfort. Westbrook's is definitely more comparable and in fact may have been the same mechanism of injury with Beverley running into Russell. He ended up with complications due to what sounds like a f***ed up surgery (first a loose stitch and then later on loose bodies). Russell ended up with a torn meniscus (based on recovery length, probably a serious tear) and I don't know that any MCL trouble came up. Still, Russell's recovery should be a strong indicator that things can and will be fine physically with Lonzo. As far as him trusting it and psychologically recovering, that's on him. There shouldn't be any long-term problems from this procedure though until Lonzo is much older. Now he could definitely re-injure his knee and that'd be more troublesome, but let's hope not. Also, Lonzo's game is more reliant on his athleticism when it comes to creating actually because his skill level still has a long way to go. Ball handling, footwork, all that fun stuff need a ton of work. His game should still age well though if he works hard. Something like Andre Miller. I understand that him strengthening his legs is still important and up until this injury we saw him consistently working on that (lots of deadlifts in the backgrounds of public workouts). He's a young guy and young guys tend to have this sort of struggle early on, especially Popsicle sticks like Lonzo. It's a good thing we've got Rondo around to keep the workload more manageable.
I definitely understand Vash's point about it not being nothing. This could lead to more problems. I just think since it's an acute injury and one where he seems to have avoided a full tear anywhere, it's not one that I'm thinking sets him back. Any time you get surgery, it's a concern though so I get it.
Interesting. I'm concerned about the medical staff, though. I hope they know what they're doing; and in this case, this is where all the Lakers money should be spent to have a top notch medical team.
I'm a guy that values defense tremendously and what Zo gave us there as a rookie is amazing Balls. Athleticism isn't something that you necessarily need in terms of court vision...so Ball with knee issues on offense isn't something I really am worried about (altho if his jumper never turns true, he's going to need athleticism to still remain a scoring threat). For example, Russ needs athleticism to remain valuable, but its hardly efficient and we wouldn't want that for Zo...would we? Meanwhile Russ on defense wasn't even in the top 50 among guards...the rookie Zo beat him in defensive ranking. I just want our transcendent guard to be realized....I don't want him to turn into some highly inefficient scoring guard to remain relevant. His court vision and defense is what makes him transcendent and that is what guys like JKidd and Rondo were, so hopefully he gets strong and gets right and we can go from there. We all want to approach this surgery with purple tinted glasses, but till Zo can get right, I do want him to ease on back and earn his spot. Till then, Rondo (aka Lonzo insurance) is our lead guard and it will make Zo a much better player if he earns that spot back.
That's a good point. All indications so far that I've seen say this is a good medical staff. If anything they may be a little too careful.
Absolutely! Doc Brar detailed the same notion in his article. The Lakers used every resource they could before electing to go the invasive route.
I think his intelligence is more important to his game than his athleticism, although his athleticism is certainly helpful. Just based on this injury and the normal recovery for it, I'm not concerned just yet that he'll lose any of his explosiveness. He's young enough to bounce back from what's essentially a bad sprain. And stop your benching Lonzo talk. The kid is a starter!
Tough love bro! I think if he gets benched and earns that spot from a killer like Rondo, he's much better for it (health wise, as well as player development). If he's better, we're better! Say it with me...if he's better, we're better!
He already earned the spot. The kid is an elite defender at 19 years old who was 4 rebounds shy of 10/7/7 with 1.7 steals per game. Rondo can pass the ball real well, but outside of that Lonzo is the better player. And Lonzo can pass the ball real well too!
I think everyone is looking at this all wrong. If his knee is slightly injured and he's recuperating, he can't be making silly hip hop videos or acting afool on stage. Pro and cons people. In the interim, he's young, he'll bounce back, and he's been hitting the weights. Now he has a vet to lean on, reduce his minutes, push him, teach him tricks of the trades and all the stuff he doesn't know. He'll learn by watching Rondo too. Win Win Win Win All I see in Win. Except for the bron thing. I haven't embraced that yet. My domain name for www.ihatelebron.com is up for renewal, and I wonder if I should sell it, or maintain it. Conflicted. We need a poll.
