Injuries

> On 11/18 it came out that Philadelphia’s Andrew Bynum had further injured his left knee while bowling (the left was the “good knee” up until then) and is out indefinitely. Read that again. Yes a guy with chronic bad knees, who hasn’t appeared in a game with his new team, or even practiced once for that matter, was out having some fun contorting his 7-foot frame to roll a ball on the ground at some pins. WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS HE THINKING? Well as a Laker fan I’m well acquainted with the misadventures of Mr. Bynum. From lifting a playmate on his shoulder while rehabbing to parking in handicap spaces all around Los Angeles to wanting to shoot 3-pointers to taking out his frustrations on J.J. Barea in a playoff game that was over. Drew is…well…frustrating.

Why did he wait until right before the season to have Orthokine treatment in Germany when it’s well known that it takes at least a month to recover from? Why did he have lubricating injections in both knees before he had fully healed from the Orthokine? Why is he growing his hair out like this? Jason Wolf of Delaware Online contacted an internationally respected orthopedic surgeon who thinks Bynum may have osteochondritis dessicans lesions, which depending on the classification (1-4) could mean Drew is already done for the year.

Everyone has an opinion on the situation. You can read ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (he broke the story) here. ESPN also asked a panel of five writers to chime in here (they even touch on his hair). J.A. Adande and Israel Gutierrez go back and forth here. But for my money the Sixers are a playoff team with or without Bynum. Jrue Holiday looks to be on the verge of making “the leap” and they have seven players with a PER of 13.4 or higher. They play defense (don’t miss Andre Iguodala one bit) and seem to have great chemistry. Their weaknesses are rebounding (27th in rebound differential at -3.7) and a complete lack of low post scoring. Obviously a healthy Bynum fixes both of those but at what cost?

When Drew comes back he’s not going bounce right into 20 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks. Remember, I’ve seen this movie before…multiple times. It takes Bynum a good solid 3-4 weeks to get back into game shape. His stamina, hands, touch, intensity and focus all need that much time to coalesce into the dominant big man he is capable of being. During that time Philly will obviously need to adjust as a unit and I worry about their chemistry suffering when “Petulant Drew” shows up and doesn’t play hard like he should.

On one hand it could be exactly what they need and on the other it could put their whole season into a tailspin. And I’m not even mentioning the fact that Bynum is a free agent after the season. What is rookie GM Tony DiLeo going to offer him contract wise? How many franchises with enough salary cap space will put maximum offers on the table? The Sixers definitely took a BIG gamble when they acquired Bynum, one that I wholeheartedly agreed they had to take, but right now it’s looking more like craps than a jackpot.

> About a week into the season on 11/7 the Indiana Pacers announced that Danny Granger would miss up to three months after receiving an injection in his left knee to treat patellar tendinosis. There are many strange angles to this story. The first being I would have moved the Pacers down to sixth in my preview if I had this information about ten days earlier. The next is Granger originally hurt this knee in May but opted to do nothing about it until September when he underwent blood-platelet treatment (which didn’t help). The third oddity is I’ve never heard of an injection that A) treats tendinosis and B) keeps you out for three months. Why he waited so long and then decided to go with the relatively new treatment of this mystery injection is anybody’s guess.

On paper Indiana looked pretty good to weather the storm until Danny returned but then the games started. The Pacers are 6-7 with a -0.5 point differential (PD) which is OK until you dig into a bit further. Everyone expected Paul George to explode in his third year moving to his natural SF spot. Well that hasn’t happened as George is shooting a career low 40.9% from the field and has seen his PER drop from 16.55 to 14.94. Next Roy Hibbert has not lived up to his shiny new 4-year/$56 million contract…at all. Hibbert is shooting career lows from the field (39.3%) and free throw line (54.5%) while scoring 9.5 points per game (lowest since his rookie year). Roy’s PER has dropped from a career high 19.35 to a career low 15.07 which makes his $14 million a year salary even worse than it seemed at first. After that Gerald Green, who signed for 3-years/$10.5 million this summer, only lasted three games as a starter and is currently shooting 39.0% from the field and sporting a 9.91 PER (down from 15.88 last season). The only good thing to come of Granger’s injury has been the emergence of third year SG Lance Stephenson. Lance is posting career highs in shooting (48.8%), 3-point shooting (44.8%), rebounds (3.0), assists (2.8), points (7.8) and PER (11.94).

I’m not sure if the Pacers read their own press clippings prior to the season or what, but with Danny out Coach Frank Vogel has to find someone besides David West (who is in a contract year BTW) who can put the ball in the basket consistently. If anything this has shown how valuable Granger really is to Indiana. I still expect the Pacers to make the playoffs, albeit with a lower seed, unless Danny’s mystery injection doesn’t work that is.

> Ten games into their season no club has been bitten by the injury bug harder than the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ricky Rubio (left ACL & MCL) has yet to play in a game, although he has started light practice work. Chase Budinger (left lateral meniscus) will miss 3-4 months and Brandon Roy (right knee) will miss a month. J.J. Barea (left foot) has missed 5 games and Nikola Pekovic (left ankle) 2 games. The good news is Kevin Love (right hand) was able to return in just under five weeks beating his initial prognosis of 6-8 weeks and put up 34 points and 14 rebounds in his first game back. The Wolves signed Josh Howard off the scrap heap on 11/15 to fill in for Budinger and Roy but otherwise they have managed nicely going 5-5 with a +0.5 PD. When/if this group gets fully healthy they are going to be proverbial “team no one wants to play” come the post season.

> San Antonio is having a bit of a crisis at the SF position. On 11/16 it was announced that an MRI on starter Kawhi Leonard showed quadriceps tendinitis in his left knee putting him out 10-14 days. Then on 11/19 backup turned starter Stephen Jackson fractured his right pinkie finger and will miss 4-6 weeks. So on 11/21 the Spurs resigned their 2010 first round pick James Anderson who had been playing in the D-League. Danny Green has moved over from starting SG to SF and Gary Neal has taken Green’s place at SG. I don’t expect this to affect SA’s bottom line that much but look for Anderson and rookie Nando de Colo to possibly get some chances to play backup minutes.

> On 11/17 Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving broke his left index finger and will miss at least a month. The Cavaliers (3-8 & -5.5 PD) aren’t very good with Kyrie and his 20.3 PER so things could get really ugly without him. Second year PG Jeremy Pargo looked great replacing Irving scoring 28 points on 11-19 shooting (4-8 from three) with 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 39 minutes while leading his side to their first win in seven games.

> On 11/13 we had our first in-season trade with Charlotte sending Matt Carroll to New Orleans in exchange for Hakim Warrick. Both guys were in their contract years and are barely regular rotation players anymore, so big picture this deal doesn’t mean much. Carroll was bought out and released by the Hornets on 11/20 and is free to sign with any team (Lakers?) he wants. With Tyrus Thomas (left leg) out for approximately two months the Bobcats are probably Warrick’s last chance to prove he’s an NBA player before Europe or China come calling.

> Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins was recently suspended for two games after confronting San Antonio color commentator Sean Elliott in a “hostile manner” after a Kings loss on 11/9. Elliott apparently got upset after Cousins yelled to no one in particular “I’m going to bust his [Tim Duncan] ass” after scoring on Duncan twice in a row and drawing a foul on Tim the very next possession. Then Elliott proceeded to drop these pearls of wisdom after Duncan blocked a DeMarcus shot:

“That’s why some humility is in order. You think you’re dominating Tim Duncan, you get it stuffed right back in your face. Timmy doesn’t like to talk trash. But if guys start talking mess to him, he’s going to respond. All that trash talking was premature. I’m not about to let these guys off the hook. Young ball club should learn from this. Don’t start talking and flapping your gums against one of the greatest players ever. He’s going to make you pay. Tell me who got the best of this exchange.”

I only bring this up because Elliott is one of the worst color guys in all of the NBA. Every call that goes against the Spurs is wrong and Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili regularly walk on water in his eyes. I think Elliott and others of his ilk like Boston’s Tom Heinsohn (he’s not even taken seriously by Celtic fans anymore), Portland’s Mike Rice (every referee has a conspiracy against the Blazers) and Denver’s Scott Hastings (he gets absolutely apoplectic at perceived missed calls against the Nuggets) tarnish their fan’s views on the NBA and their refs. So I applaud Boogie Cousins for doing what every non-SA fan that watches League Pass regularly has always wanted to do…except he forgot to punch Elliott in the mouth after blasting him for being a complete tool.

(This is part of a much larger column I’ve always wanted to write about every TV announcer in the NBA (good & bad) but never get around to typing.)

> The Miami Heat are rolling along at 9-3 with a +4.6 PD (6th best overall) but I’ve noticed something when watching them lately. They don’t play hard consistently anymore. Instead the defending champs tend to coast for three-and-a-half quarters before turning it on mid-way through the fourth. I can’t really blame them since they will likely be playing until late June again, but “flipping the switch” is a dangerous habit for any team to get into.