The Lakers have had back-to-back injury riddled seasons. The year we had Dwight Howard we were still riddled with injuries. Antawn Jamison missed time, Hill missed time, Dwight obviously missed time, Kobe missed the end of the season... Last year the Lakers went through not just one of the franchise's worst injury-riddled seasons, but one of the worst in NBA history. There was a game where we didn't have enough players to finish the game after Sacre fouled out... When is it time to start pointing fingers at our training staff? When is it time to start placing blame on the trainers, therapists, and physicians that advice and counsel our players? Gary is clearly a bright man and he's been around the block, but is it maybe time for him to move on? Clearly something is not right here. Maybe it's just time we added people to the staff to help out? The Lakers aren't hurting for money. Why don't they throw the kitchen sink at the training staff in Phoenix? There needs to be movement in this arena. Even if our trainers are performing to the very best of their abilities, there needs to be changes made here clearly. We can't continue going through seasons like this where players continue to get hurt. Once is an anomaly, twice is a trend. So far we're looking at year three and a pattern. Do changes need to be made on our training staff? Or are we just the unluckiest team around right now?
Yes. We need to take a serious look at our training staff. It's not entirely their fault. It's some bad luck too, but when so many of your players are consistently injured, the training staff has to be doing something wrong. It's not even just these past few seasons. It's just rare for the Lakers to have a healthy season in general. This article briefly talks about how the Phoenix Suns tries to minimize the risk of injury. Why can't we hire a training staff like this? http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...-suns-legendary-training-staff-211522807.html This next article talks about how crappy the Blazers training staff used to be. Lakers' training staff aren't as notoriously bad as the former Blazers' training staff, but we certainly could see an improvement in that area. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...saved-better-medical-attention-193024275.html
I agree with both of you. I don't know if the problem is Vitti himself, maybe it is. Perhaps Vitti doesn't have enough help. Perhaps the medical side, whoever the team uses as physicians needs to change. I don't know as I'm obviously not privy to how all that works but it's apparent something is wrong. This is the 3rd season straight that we're having severe injury issues. I don't believe that's a coincidence.
The hell? When i was saying (at CL) that our medical staff sucks and we need some fresh blood, i got killed . We should look at what PHX staff is doing/using and do exactly the same .
If I remember correctly, it was the fact that the Lakers made cuts to the personnel and some of that included the medical staff. I think Vitti is fine, but he definitely needs more hands on deck. No medical staff can really "prevent" injuries from happening, things happen. But when the IR starts to queue up, there isn't as many hands to go around and things start to decline from there. Vitti made note of that the one season where Dwight was here. There were too many players injured, he couldn't get to all of them on time. Kobe had to make up by playing 40+ mpg, reserve players started to log heavy minutes they never played before, and it all just snowballed. We need more medical staff to attend to all of the injured players, and rehabilitation/strength conditioning coaches to make sure the players are ready to go. Right now, we have: Young, Lin, Nash, Clarkson, Henry all still out. We need these guys back, and back quick. The more players we are able to get on the floor, the less stress and risk we put on these guys night in and night out, both players and training staff.
I wonder if Vitti has enough time to be "up to date" with all the latest and greatest medical/recovery procedures and "gadgets". I know we used that anti gravity treadmil for Kobe and Bynum but there has to be more. One, two new, young members to the medical staff can do wonders for us... at least that's what im thinking.
interesting...Vitti has been with us close to 30yrs now.. agreed with the sentiments of others that it's not his fault that players get injured and that he does need more help in getting our players recovered as quickly as possible
I'm not sure about the specifics going on in their training staff, but obviously there's a problem right? He can't be held responsible for everything, but at what point CAN he be held responsible. That's the question. When can we finally stop blaming luck and say this is on us?
Vitti has to be up to date, you don't spend 30 years with the top job your profession in Sports one could argue. So if it's purse strings and those wholesale cuts, along with scouts a couple of years ago, then hell yeah hire some more bodies that "really" know what they're doing. Would Tim Grover be down with being a full time assistant to Vitti?
I think Kobe be one to be first in line to vouch for Vitti. If Gary wasn't doing the best job he can, getting Kobe back as soon as possible, through all the things Kobe has gone through, then I'm sure Kobe would have gone outside the organization to do so right? If by "luck" you're referring to players getting injured, I don't think there's anything you can do outside of witchcraft to prevent it. Perhaps that falls on the coach and system. Are players in the wrong spots running into each other? Are they playing defense incorrectly that could injure someone? Is footwork a problem where players are not properly planting their feet and twisting things? Unless it's a problem with Vitti himself, I don't think any of what we have been seeing could point to Gary.
How could it NOT? What other team has had our luck the last three years? At some point your name/reputation can only take you so far. Not that D'Antoni has a sterling reputation, but he was fired more or less because we had some really bad luck the last couple seasons. Our health was terrible and while he was a contributor to it, he was also a victim of it. At some point Vitti's job performance must be called into question. Our team is clearly not being prepared well enough to withstand a full NBA season (heck just the pre-season these days).
Well, was it a coincidence that while D'Antoni was in Phoenix and New York, his star players happened to get injured too often. Nash, Amare, Carmelo, Tyson Chandler, even Jeremy Once he left both cities, the players, all came back healthy and started to play fine right after.
When were his star players injured in Phoenix? For the most part, they've been healthy. Their "unhealthy" seasons are equivalent to our healthiest ones. You can't always prevent an injury, but you can minimize the chances of it. In the article that I linked to, it says that the Phoenix Suns staff aims to strengthen any weaknesses in the body. A weak area in the body can compromise the other body parts. They ensure that the players don't favor the "healthy" parts over other parts and try to balance the load throughout the body. They treat the entire body, and not just the injured/swollen/hurt part itself. Shaq has never done anything like that in his career and thought the process was "unorthodox". This is another article that goes more in-depth into what they do: http://valleyofthesuns.com/2012/04/05/secret-behind-phoenix-suns-elite-training-staff/
Last I read, they had an Osteopathic physician on staff. From the various info above, they still seem like they are involved with that aspect of medicine. Great stuff.
I know that Gary has spoken about kenetic chain issues and that's more or less what the Suns staff is describing. However, I don't know if he tackles it the same way that they do. As a trainer you try to find those imbalances and work on them, but clearly not enough is being done on some level with us.
Trainers aren't certified to do what that Osteopathic physician is doing for the Suns. Have to go to medical school for that.
I wasn't arguing that at all, just saying that what the above quotes are referencing aren't all that different from things I've heard Vitti say. Kenetic Chain is an idea that is at it's core Osteopathic: one thing affects another and all things need to be balanced to achieve perfection. Gary is aware of that, but I don't know what he does as a trainer to affect change in those areas.
For the most part yes, but still, Amare had his knee injury in 2005. 2008 and 2009 had injuries to his eyes. Kurt Thomas was also injured in the 2005-2006 year. Steve Nash always had back issues, even dating back to his MVP years under D'Antoni. Joe Johnson had an injury in 2005. Nothing to the extent of our last two years, but it's not farfetched to say that D'Antoni runs his players to the ground.
