Oh no.....not Bynum!
On 1/13 Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum dislocated his left kneecap when he landed awkwardly on teammate Lamar Odom’s left foot while going up for a rebound. Bynum also suffered a bone bruise on the kneecap and some soft tissue damage around the area. He’ll be out for a minimum of two months. According to Lakers trainer Gary Vitti, soft tissue takes 4 to 6 weeks to mend and the real unknown is how long the bone bruise on the kneecap will take to heal.
As bad as that sounds, it could have been much worse. Vitti again, “When you see a player go down the way he did, with the torque he put on his knee, usually the first thing you think of is anterior cruciate ligament damage.” Coach Phil Jackson echoes that same sentiment, “If it's not an operation, a surgery he has to go through, we have to be pleased with it.”
But then in the very next breath Phil gets to the heart of the matter. “The process of us monitoring the season for eight weeks without him, as big an influence as he's been, is going to be difficult.”
Before I get into the nuts and bolts of this, let’s back track a little. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen when espn.com devoted a whole day to Drew. Stories, podcasts, blogs, a scouting breakdown…you name it, they covered it. Now I thought it would be more along the lines of he’d let the pub get to his head or something, and not a major injury, but when I saw the “front page” spread on him I knew karma was lurking.
Speaking of cosmic realities, another eerie thing for Laker fans is that this EXACT scenario happened last season. LA had pretty much the same record within a few games at the same time a year ago, and then Luke Walton went down. Next was Odom, then Vladimir Radmanovic and by the time Kwame Brown got hurt the wheels had officially fallen off the season.
Fast forward to this year, and the Lakers were already without Chris Mihm (right Achilles), Radmanovic (right ankle) and Sasha Vujacic (left ankle & back) when Bynum went down.
Of course, last season’s squad wasn’t anywhere near first place in the West when the calamities began piling up. This year LA had the longest winning streak in the league (7 games) and was atop the mighty Western Conference (from 1/15-17) when disaster struck.
There’s really no comparison between the two versions though. Last season the Lakers were 18th in defensive field goal percentage (46.09%) and this year they are 4th (43.91%). Rebound differential has also improved greatly from -1.00 (20th) to +1.48 (9th), and you better believe that Drew was a big part of both of those improvements.
At the time Bynum went down he was averaging 13.1 points, 10.2 rebounds (11th in the NBA), 2.06 blocked shots (9th), was shooting 63.6% from the field (1st) and had 18 double-doubles (tied 11th).
Replacing his scoring is the least of my concerns as LA rarely just dumped the ball into Drew and let him work. Most of his points came off put backs, lobs and broken plays. Plus, Kobe Bryant can normally pick up the scoring slack when needed anyway.
Rebouding is a little more worrisome, but shouldn’t be a major issue because Brown, Odom and Ronny Turiaf are all solid on the boards. Additionally, Mihm is at least two weeks from returning, and when he does that will help in this area too.
By far my biggest concern though is the last line of defense Bynum provided. The Lakers have no other shot blocker on their roster at all. None. The mere presence Drew’s extreme length brings as a deterrent to the opposition driving the lane is irreplaceable. In the one-and-a-half games since he went down LA’s defense has reverted to its sieve like former self.
Yuck.
If that wasn’t already bad enough, the worst part for the Lakers is they are about to hit the most murderous portion of their schedule. LA starts a nine game Eastern swing on 1/31. That’s not all though. From 1/31 to 2/29 they play only THREE home games total. Over that same stretch they play 13 roadies and have six back-to-backs. So even at 100% healthy they were likely to struggle and drop in the standings.
Now?
Well let’s just say I hope they are still in the top eight when Bynum returns. Two months would put him back on 3/9, which is actually a perfect time for his return. That would give the Lakers five weeks in the regular to re-acclimate to his presence while making their push for the post season.
LA was looking like thee dark horse for the championship before this debacle, and their year is far from lost just yet. If they can regain the form they’ve displayed over the last 20 games (17-3) in the last month of the season, no one will want to face them come playoff time.
As bad as that sounds, it could have been much worse. Vitti again, “When you see a player go down the way he did, with the torque he put on his knee, usually the first thing you think of is anterior cruciate ligament damage.” Coach Phil Jackson echoes that same sentiment, “If it's not an operation, a surgery he has to go through, we have to be pleased with it.”
But then in the very next breath Phil gets to the heart of the matter. “The process of us monitoring the season for eight weeks without him, as big an influence as he's been, is going to be difficult.”
Before I get into the nuts and bolts of this, let’s back track a little. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen when espn.com devoted a whole day to Drew. Stories, podcasts, blogs, a scouting breakdown…you name it, they covered it. Now I thought it would be more along the lines of he’d let the pub get to his head or something, and not a major injury, but when I saw the “front page” spread on him I knew karma was lurking.
Speaking of cosmic realities, another eerie thing for Laker fans is that this EXACT scenario happened last season. LA had pretty much the same record within a few games at the same time a year ago, and then Luke Walton went down. Next was Odom, then Vladimir Radmanovic and by the time Kwame Brown got hurt the wheels had officially fallen off the season.
Fast forward to this year, and the Lakers were already without Chris Mihm (right Achilles), Radmanovic (right ankle) and Sasha Vujacic (left ankle & back) when Bynum went down.
Of course, last season’s squad wasn’t anywhere near first place in the West when the calamities began piling up. This year LA had the longest winning streak in the league (7 games) and was atop the mighty Western Conference (from 1/15-17) when disaster struck.
There’s really no comparison between the two versions though. Last season the Lakers were 18th in defensive field goal percentage (46.09%) and this year they are 4th (43.91%). Rebound differential has also improved greatly from -1.00 (20th) to +1.48 (9th), and you better believe that Drew was a big part of both of those improvements.
At the time Bynum went down he was averaging 13.1 points, 10.2 rebounds (11th in the NBA), 2.06 blocked shots (9th), was shooting 63.6% from the field (1st) and had 18 double-doubles (tied 11th).
Replacing his scoring is the least of my concerns as LA rarely just dumped the ball into Drew and let him work. Most of his points came off put backs, lobs and broken plays. Plus, Kobe Bryant can normally pick up the scoring slack when needed anyway.
Rebouding is a little more worrisome, but shouldn’t be a major issue because Brown, Odom and Ronny Turiaf are all solid on the boards. Additionally, Mihm is at least two weeks from returning, and when he does that will help in this area too.
By far my biggest concern though is the last line of defense Bynum provided. The Lakers have no other shot blocker on their roster at all. None. The mere presence Drew’s extreme length brings as a deterrent to the opposition driving the lane is irreplaceable. In the one-and-a-half games since he went down LA’s defense has reverted to its sieve like former self.
Yuck.
If that wasn’t already bad enough, the worst part for the Lakers is they are about to hit the most murderous portion of their schedule. LA starts a nine game Eastern swing on 1/31. That’s not all though. From 1/31 to 2/29 they play only THREE home games total. Over that same stretch they play 13 roadies and have six back-to-backs. So even at 100% healthy they were likely to struggle and drop in the standings.
Now?
Well let’s just say I hope they are still in the top eight when Bynum returns. Two months would put him back on 3/9, which is actually a perfect time for his return. That would give the Lakers five weeks in the regular to re-acclimate to his presence while making their push for the post season.
LA was looking like thee dark horse for the championship before this debacle, and their year is far from lost just yet. If they can regain the form they’ve displayed over the last 20 games (17-3) in the last month of the season, no one will want to face them come playoff time.
posted by D$ at 8:31 PM
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