The moment he hit the floor i said april... now, im not so sure. He might be done for the regular season.
Not sure if he got prp done immediately after the diagnosis cause nothing is reported (and previous history shows Zo's folks and the Lakers aren't eager to fully disclose info on his health), but that would shorten recovery time. A grade 3 given a 4-6 week initial window could imply that it's a high ankle sprain and prp was part of the treatment and/or the complete tear was clean enough (no residual scar tissue) where surgery was not required. Reevaluation in a week without any intervention could mean that recovery is going as planned and surgery could still be avoided. Had we heard he needed interventive treatment of any kind, that would have been even worse news. I'm still thinking it's going to be an 8 week recovery window where he slowly revs up if we're still firmly in the playoff race. One thing you never want to do is rush back from a grade 3, cause that can have residual effects. If he healed without surgical treatment, but the soft tissue within the ankle still didn't heal completely, you're heading for another grade 3 tear within that same or adjacent site that could lead to more chronic issues down the line, impacting his playing career. For reference with the same injury last season, Bellevedova had an initial 4 week prognosis that became 9 weeks and ReggieJax had an initial 6-8 week window that got pushed to 12 weeks. Zo's appears to be more severe than Belly, but less than Reggie's. Let's say this becomes about a 10 week rehab stint, we're looking at his return the first week of April.
There's also that bone bruise as well. Bone bruises are not like a normal bruise on the skin. They can be very tricky. I've had a bone bruise before and it took over 2 months for the pain to go away. I've had broken bones heal faster than that.
Oh no doubt! That escaped my mind... When you think of a bruise, that's trauma that leads to instability of cellular integrity. So a bone bruise is actually microfractures of the inner meshwork of the bone (ie spongy bone). Poor immobilization could cause the bone to further fracture. Bone bruises are far more severe than they sound. It's not what everybody wants to hear, but taking the conservative route is the right approach in this case. It's just bad timing that Lance stubs his toe and could be out a couple weeks depending on the severity of the sprain and Rondo doesn't seem all the way healthy yet either. Hope BI's ready for more of a stint at point as a result.
I actually really like BI at the point. I really hope that we keep BI through all this. I think he's finally learning how to play with Lebron, and defensively, it's not close between him and Kuz. Ingram can effectively guard 4 positions. Kuzma can't guard 1/2 a position. Unfortunately, the way he's playing, he's going to be part of the AD package.
I'd be shocked if BI is held out of the deal...but he's my guy that I save at all costs. Plus after we secure AD, we can trade him for Beal later. And Zo...for the love of all things that have been spoken into existence. Ditch the shoes. These Ball boys and their ankles...goddamn.
I agree with you guys. I know someone will have to be traded, but I like all of our guys. Teams will want Kuz and Ingram for sure. They play well. If Kuz was truly a deadly shoter, I'd prefer to keep him, but he's not. He's a scorer first. Which is great, but depending on how your new team looks like, it's easier to plug BI in and ask him to adapt, because he's a jack of all trades. If you need him to score - fine. Set people up - sure, no problem. Defend multiple position - check. But yeah, if we see that, other teams see it too and will want him first. Except if they don't need a "swiss knife" and need a potent scorer instead. Then they will prioritize Kuzma. When it comes to Zo, we play much better with him in the lineup. He is our best playmaker and the best perimeter defender. Everything looks in sync when he's out there. Heh, his dad would say that he is the best player on the team anyway.
So if we do make the playoffs, he has about a week of regular season games to get back into groove (assuming the playoff push doesn’t last until the last game). If it looks like we have no chance, just shut him down.
What’s the point of this post? I certainly didn’t even hint that Lonzo is greater than Embiid. I thought the comparison was obvious and valid. Some young players struggle to stay healthy as their bodies adapt to the NBA. Embiid did. Steph was constantly spraining ankles his first few seasons. A lot of Warriors fans questioned whether he was a wasted pick back then just like many Sixers fans questioned the process when Embiid was sitting out entire seasons. No one knows Lonzo’s future but I’m confident he will get healthy and have a long productive career.
As long as he continues to develop his body (he made more progress than Ingram, for sure) and ditches those shoes, he'll be alright. He's athletic, but his game... not so much. Which is going to be good for his body in the long run.
I dunno .... when you run and push the ball in traffic as fast as he does and leap as high as he does for the obvious needed situations in a game that's pretty athletic. Always the risk with any of these guys coming down or stepping on someone else's foot wrong. Or someone Jalen Roseing a player walking under him on a shot. Though I don't think that happened with this injury. It looked like the defender bumped him hard and fouled him knocking him a bit to where he rolled the ankle on his own? Those, certainly you'd hope for better shoes and better ankle conditioning.
Typically, you can't just isolate it as a shoe thing...but he's had BBBs on each time.... Nov 9, 2018 (ie the jump- off) - mild left ankle sprain Nov 27, 2018 - left ankle sprain Jan 19, 2019 - grade 3 left ankle sprain There's a medical history of his left ankle and in each occurrence, he's rolled it on someone else's foot. I'm not saying it's entirely the shoe, but if the shoe fits...
I think karacha meant that zo's strengths aren't reliant necessarily on athleticism. Iverson, Westbrook, or even lebron are far less effective without their athleticism. Zo's athleticism is just gravy on top of his talents.
his straight line speed is important to his success, imo, as is his ability to get off the floor and challenge shots and rebounds.
