Well, I am with you realdeal. I have been questioning our training staff for a while. Do we need to clean house? Ehhh. I don't know. Should everything we have been evaluated? Absolutely.
I'm suspect, but I'm not at the point I think we should blame Vitti just yet. This all really started once the FO cut those 20 or so staff positions. Before that, as I remember it, we were a remarkably healthy team other than Bynum. These were some of the guys cut leading up to the lockout in 2011: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/22/sports/la-sp-lakers-layoffs-20110723 Even if we replaced some of these guys, look at their experience. Could we, and have we, replaced that experience?
Yes. It's time to change. It's not like we don't have the resources. We have access to some of the best Universities/Medical Facilities in the entire country. We should be leading in this area in all the NBA. There should be no reason why we shouldn't be using the latest technological trends that the medical society is offering in sports medicine. Period.
Vitti is still considered one of the top in his field and is in demand world-wide for clinics. He delegates a lot of duties with the med staff because he can't do everything. I don't know if we can blame the injuries we've had on the staff. I just don't buy that. Really the med staff wasn't even hit as hard as say the scouting staff during the PJ purge of 2011. A few guys were brought back.Key cuts to the med staff were Chip Schaefer, Alex McKechnie and Rudy Garciduenas (equipment). Most of the current staff were promoted up from within or been around the organization a long time. Currently under Vitti: Tim DiFrancesco Strength & Conditioning Coach started 2011-2012 season (promoted up from Defenders, was basically their Vitti) Dr. Judy Seto Head Physical Therapist - has been involved with the team in some capacity for 20 years (working with Kobe since 2000) and traveled with Lakers during the playoffs since the '09-'10 championships before becoming full time 2011-2012 season Marco Nunez Assistant Athletic Trainer started July 2008 (briefly let go and brought back after the PJ purge of 2011) Marko Yrjovuori Sports Massage Therapist since just before the 2004-2005 season (briefly let go and brought back after the PJ purge of 2011) Carlos Maples Equipment Manager since 2011-2012 season (been around team for years, was a ball boy under Vitti since he was 13) Dr. Cate Shanahan Director of Lakers PRO Nutrition Program started 2012 - her dietary advice is solid, got the players off junk food and processed foods.
I still don't think its fair at all to be blaming Vitti. Sure he isn't perfect but I think more of this injury storm has to do with bad luck. And some players, i.e. Nash are just simply too old.
Even if Vitti is not responsible for the injuries, he's at least for recovery. And we can't really be pleased with how thing goes in this area. Quite none of our players recover in expected time.
When the amount of injuries pile up like it did the last two years, it's going to be a slow turnaround.
What I don't understand is why, with all the money and resources that a huge franchise like the Lakers have, they can't find a way to replicate the miracle workers and their system in the Phoenix Suns medical staff. Why are players going to the Suns and then saying that the medics there are telling them things about their bodies that no one on any of the previous teams have pointed out to them? Here's a must read about the Suns Medical staff: http://valleyofthesuns.com/2012/04/05/secret-behind-phoenix-suns-elite-training-staff/
I just don't understand how we can absolve Vitti and just attribute THREE YEARS of injuries to just... bad luck. Three years? Really? He's got nothing to do with that?
We need to keep in mind that Vitti is a trainer, not a physician. His job isn't to diagnose problems. His job is to keep a player in shape and develop protocols to help players prevent injuries based on information he receives from the physician. How much of the problem is Vitti and the training staff, and how much of it is the medical staff not giving him the information he needs?
I think we (as fans ) have very little insight to answer this question ... Yes the latest two seasons have been terrible on the health side but we have had some old players , injury prone ones ... plus NOBODY ( except SAS and Heat) was able to stay healthy Maybe our current medical staff methods are outdated ... I have no idea . If somebody has the theoric medical knowledge needed AND some inside infos on our medical staff methods , let us know ...
It can't be just bad luck ... just a ton of factors ... mileage ( Kobe , Pau) , old players ( Nash) , a lot of our 2013-2014 players were not used to play so many minutes ... Vitti and his staff have probably their share of responsability ... but who really knows ? Meeks as a Piston is already injured ... Blake too ( I think ?) ...
You know... I do agree that our medical staff methods might be outdated. Few years ago I thought we had all those injuries because our guys were old. But this is simply not the case anymore. Everyone gets injured and they take a long time to recover on top of that. I would be lying if I said I was not worried about this.
I'm not going to opine much here because it's way out of my scope of knowledge. We do have a lot of injuries and have over the past couple/few years. But I'm also not necessarily ruling out that it was simply a confluence of injuries, which can happen. We definitely should be looking at what Phoenix does though because of how well they have been able to treat their players. They are the model we should be emulating. If Vitti is somehow impeding that from happening then it should be investigated. Or maybe it's the med staff? I don't really know how all that works on the Lakers. Bynum had a lot of problems, and that's about when we started getting the injury bug and complaints. But Bynum still has those same problems. Kobe's achilles I blame on both D' Antoni and himself. He pushed it too hard and D' Antoni let him in order to save his own butt. Vitti couldn't have stopped him if tried and I'm sure he did try, but he's not in charge of minutes out there. Nash was already a hot mess with that back on the Suns, so I don't know what to say about that. We took him on with that knowledge. Steve Blake had the worst luck injuries I've ever seen - they were like Voodoo Doll style (stepping on a parking lot tire puncture spike?). Swaggy? Also bad luck on that one. X - poor guy just hasn't ever really been healthy in his career. The only injuries we've had that really bug me are the hamstrings just because that kind of speaks to either not training enough or not correctly or something. Seems like those should be avoidable. That's Kelly, Pau and Farmar that I can think of offhand.
I just don't think you can solely point the finger at him. It's a multitude of factors. 1. Age - Nash, Kobe, Pau. 2. Injury prone players - Blake, Farmar 3. Mike D'Antoni - Heavy usage on players. Inconsistent lineups and minutes, players can't go from playing 5 minutes one night, to 45 the next. 4. Number of injuries - Once the injuries started piling on, Vitti was responsible for all of them. Could we say that Vitti could have done a better job at getting back healthy? Of course, but some players take longer than others. I do see your point though. As the HEAD Athletic trainer, he is responsible for the team. Whether it's the getting the right strength and conditioning or constantly evaluating players health to get them on the right track of being fit and preventing injuries. From that Sun's article up there from their head athletic trainer: Overall, the athletic trainers need to constantly evaluate the players, see where players are hurting, and set a plan for them to get back on track, and get stronger to avoid those little injuries. However, the past few years had been a bad combination of things that contributed to the injuries. I can't personally say all of the blame is on Vitti, but yes, at some point, he needs to be responsible for the well being of the team.
It might not be his job to diagnose a problem (although they list Seto the PT, whose job it IS to diagnose problems, on his staff for some reason), but it's his job to prepare these guys and get them in the best shape/condition for their job. Something isn't happening there on that front. The Doctors that these guys get sent to diagnose, but then it's Vitti's job to come up with plans to prevent and heal injuries... Isn't it?
@lakerfan2 - That's all I'm saying. I understand we've been incredibly unfortunate the last three years, but some of the blame really has to fall on Vitti and the rest of the training staff. It has to. You can't be the head of the health department for the Lakers and not take some responsibility when the whole team is unhealthy. Just like Byron is going to take some blame for this team when they stink even though it's not his responsibility of Wes turns the ball over 15 times. In an office if I keep mussing up paperwork, even if there's all kinds of extenuating circumstances, at some point it's my fault and I need to shoulder the blame. That doesn't mean I need to be fired... but maybe I need help or a new direction or to learn some new things to help me get my work in order. That's all I'm trying to get across here.
