Is injury prone a real thing?

Now is as bad a time as any to ask this. Is being injury prone a real thing? We know of plenty of promising young players whose careers never really got started due to injuries. Greg Oden for example. Romeo is getting that tag. But Romeo's injuries are not all in the same place or of the same type. I've done a tiny bit of research and there's some suggestion that some people have a tendency due to their DNA. But there's nothing definitive. So do you think being injury prone is a read thing or just an unfortunate tag we hang on unfortunate players?

Great question.

I think it’s a real thing.

I believe some athletes may be victims of weaknesses that can’t be easily corrected. Development in joints, for instance. Some bodies just can’t take the pounding their sport demands.

There has long been talk about repetitive stress injury, stemming from over use and over training. I’ve seen cases of this in younger athletes committing to a specific sport before their body can develop in an overall balanced way. As many start playing their sport year round in their teens or even younger, there are plenty of Romeo Langfords, whose time in the game may be limited as much or more by injury than by shortcomings in their game.

I do know this. When tall - 7' or so - 18 or 19 year old young men are asked to play 82 NBA games, the end plates of their long bones have not fully hardened yet, and they are more susceptible to long term injury, e.g. Greg Oden. Sixty-one games was too much for him. Shorter young players have that problem to a much lesser degree.

Think back to some of the players who were supposed to be destined to be "stars" who never made it. You already have Oden, but there are so many others. Grant Hill had a great career, yet every time you turned around he was hurt. Penny Hardaway, even Tracy McGrady. I bet the list would be double sided if we sat and thought about it. I am really beginning to wonder about Robert Williams, this kid cannot seem to stay on the floor. It is always something. This is the reason he dropped in the draft, it had noting to do with his ability. He was injured alot. Romeo, I have given up trying to figure this kid out.

So, I do agree, there is something to it, because when you make that list, the same people pop up multiple times. Worcester is right, those bones just are not developed enough. I am no doctor, but, this was an interesting topic for conversation in an otherwise negative year.
Any other thoughts out there???

Chris Forsberg
@ChrisForsberg_
·
14h
2020-21 Celtics in a snapshot

183 games missed. Add 4 more for Jaylen Brown. Maybe more for Rob.

And now it’s guaranteed: Zero games played with their top 7 available the entire season.

https://twitter.com/ChrisForsberg_/status/1391908896403562496





Bob
MY NOTE:  There's a column cut off on the right, and that's the W-L record for the games those players were out.  You can go look at it by clicking on the twitter link provided between the text and the graphic.  That's a somewhat revealing stat, although, if you don't match up the dates you don't know who else was also out then.  Being down Tatum might hurt but being down Tatum and Thompson made it really hard to win, so the W-L records should be viewed like that.  Who else was out on those days?  Regardless, not being able to put your top 7 players on the floor in the same game for the entire season is ridiculous. There's a reason why a player is the #10 or #11 player on the roster, it's because they're not as good as the top 9 players, and no coach would ever go only 6 deep willingly.  They might go only 8 deep for a specific game here and there, against specific opponents in a big game, but not much more often than that.  Therefore Brad, by definition, was hamstrung in his substitutions all season because he always had to reach further down his bench than any coach would otherwise.  I would love to see a comparable analysis for other teams.  I'll bet there isn't another team in the league that had to deal with this.  I'm not saying team's haven't been hurt by COVID, if you remember Orlando's roster was severely depleted in our most recent game, but were they ever healthy 1-7 this season?  We haven't.

I count 36 games missed by players just due to COVID protocol-related issues, and I suspect the list is actually longer than I can see which means there are player-games lost that I don't know, but that's still half this 72 game season.


.

Excellent data Bob.

Ownership has a tough row to hoe this summer for sure, the above data notwithstanding. I don't think they can stand pat and I don't think they'll blow everything up. Let's restate that. They won't sit still and they won't blow everything up all the way through. But Brad has to be the most uncomfortable job-wise. The team expects huge turnovers every year.

You don't want to overreact or under-react. But there will be some reacting personnel-wise to this abysmal season.

db

Thanks Bob. It's interesting that if you filter out the Covid and general illness, for most of the players the actual injury incidents are not that alarming. Obviously a surgery (Langford) or chronic injury (Walker) has a big impact on the games missed but they are still single injuries, though KW might be due to repeated injuries. One or two injury incidents doesn't seem to be out of line for a season. The only guys with more than 2 are RW with 3 and JB with 5(!) including the wrist. But when there is talk of injury prone RL and RW are the first to come to mind.

Besides pushing young bodies too hard (an excellent observation) I wonder at times about style of play and position.

dbrown4 wrote:Ownership has a tough row to hoe this summer for sure, the above data notwithstanding.  I don't think they can stand pat and I don't think they'll blow everything up.  Let's restate that.  They won't sit still and they won't blow everything up all the way through.  But Brad has to be the most uncomfortable job-wise.  The team expects huge turnovers every year.

You don't want to overreact or under-react.  But there will be some reacting personnel-wise to this abysmal season.

db    

dbrown,

There will be changes.  I've gone on record numerous times saying we need to clean out the bottom of the roster.  Will there be major changes in the roster in the top 7?  Who?  Thompson?  Maybe.  That would be too bad, he is doing exactly what he was signed to do, defend and board, but he's not irreplaceable.  Moving either of the Js would be a blockbuster trade and is unlikely (I had a GSW fan friend of mine text me last night and offered 5X All-Star Klay Thompson for Jaylen straight up.  I told him to check into AA or NA or whatever support group will help him with his issues.  Jayson is untouchable and Jaylen's close to it with a very reasonable team-friendly contract that runs through 2024.  He's only 24 1/2 now).  Smart?  If Smart goes it is only because of his contract renewal.  I don't think Danny would be able to trade him for a player who is either an All-Star, a future All-Star or someone who is All-NBA anything like Marcus is, not even for his expected higher salary and I don't want him to trade him for anybody less than those.  Kemba?  If only, but who would take his contract?  Danny's going to try like hell to retain Fournier, and he should.  If RWill is traded it will be because of his chronic injury history.  So, who does that leave that trading or waiving them would move the needle?  Kemba (perhaps unmoveable), Smart (hard to move for fair value precisely because he is valued, not only by Danny and Brad but by everyone else and they know they're not going to steal him for nothing), the Js (nope, not imo), RWill (possible), Thompson (maybe, but we won't get a lot in return) and Fournier.  There's our top 7, and only one of them (Thompson) or maybe two (RWill) are realistically on the block, and that's not a big move, and it has been our top 7 that haven't played together all season.

Pritchard has value in the trade market, but would we want to?  He's coming along ahead of schedule and he's cheaper than a New Orleans street walker @ #26 for 4 more years.  Same with Nesmith, although he's a bit more expensive, certainly not enough for that to matter though.  Would we want to move either of them?  Depends upon who we're getting in return, of course, but seriously?

Romeo can go, Grant Ojelaye can go (and he can take Semi Williams with him), Carsen can go but none of these players' losses, nor their replacements are likely to move the needle.  We could replace them with a better role player or two, and that'd be an upgrade, but not huge.  


Bob


.

the fact that there was no bench to rely on for alot of the season except for Pritchard and (now) Nesmith, It makes it easier to look at alot of the losses and understand what the heck Brad was going thru.  This starting lineup, when healthy (and that has not been often enough for me) is excellent. After that??????   I think there are a few players who will come to the realization that their time here is over.  Semi for one.  At the beginning of the year I really thought he had begun to turn that corner, have a few baskets a game that really counted, and played solid defense. This has not been the case in the second half of the season.  It has been awful for the most part for him. Waters, Edwards, just taking up space.  We need some veteran players, some who have been there and done that, know what is expected of them and do their job. II like Thompson, think it would be good if he stayed, but who knows?

Fournier seems to fit, it will be interesting to see if they can resign him. After that??? as far as I am concerned, do what has to be done or can be done. No more 'WHAT IF'S"  next season. This has been a tough year.  Disappointment is running high, but I truly believe blaming Brad for all of this is wrong.  Sure, he could do things better at some points, but I will not go down that road and blame him.  I know I am alone on this island, but I will stick with what I feel strongly about. Brad has worked his butt off this year. Do you honestly think he wants to be in this position?

Who blames Brad for all this? Some, but not all. He'll be here next year, I hope with a better bench.

I think the graph listing games missed highlights a few things:

1.  It's hard to field a competitive team when your top competitors aren't available.  And our top 7 competitors never played together this year, not once.  As Sam used to point out chemistry is critical for success, especially in a team sport like basketball .  How do you generate chemistry when you're never on the court with the same unit?

2.  We've played 68 games and RWill has missed 15 of them.  Of those 15 games missed 5 were for non-COVID illness and COVID protocol.  That leaves 10 games missed because of injuries.  10 out of 68 is 15%.  Is that a lot?  Well, 15% of a normal 82 games season would be 12 games missed out of 82, meaning he would have played in 70.  Meh.  He's also going to miss more games with his turf toe so we could end up the season, at worst, with 14 games missed out of 72 and that's 20%, or 66 games out of a normal 82 games season.  That's not so hot, is it, especially since they aren't major injuries like a ligament that require surgery?  Jaylen has played since the OKC game with a torn ligament.  RWill couldn't play because he had a sore hip?

3.  Langford with 50 missed games, out of 68, with 36 of them from his wrist surgery, 1 from concussion protocol.  If you look up 'injury-prone' in the dictionary you'll see a picture of Romeo Langford's face on a milk carton.  He also missed 13 games from COVID-related issues.  

I am baffled by how many games we have lost to COVID.  Danny says it's not the team's fault, they are very careful in the Auerbach Center etc.  Normally I don't believe a word Danny says about stuff like this but it's in his best interests to actually do what he's saying they're doing so it's not unreasonable that this time he's telling the truth.  That would mean the problem lies with the players themselves and how careful they are when they aren't in the Auerbach Center or at TD Garden.  Romeo got COVID.  Other than Romeo, who else got it?  Tatum, Thompson and Fournier.  Everybody else who lost games due to COVID were just for contact tracing and not because of they tested positives.  Tatum has a life in Boston.  Thompson flew his wife and kids in a lot.  I can't blame him for that, but who then might be the culprit(s) for infecting him?  Fournier got hit with a false positive but then really got it.  I don't know why.  The rookies and sophomores, the players whose only friends in Boston are each other?  Nope, other than Romeo.  Natural social distancing in their own "pod", if you will, and also unaffected by the team facilities lends credence to the hypothesis that Danny is right and it's not the team's fault.
 
Despite all those missed games by players we are still in the playoffs.  Scientifically provable fact:  100% of the teams that do not make the playoffs have 0% chance of winning the Championship.  This is a variation on the old saying that "100% of the putts that do not reach the hole do not go in".  Science is often widely applicable like that. Furthermore, every team that does make the playoffs, in any seed, has some chance.

What we lost with Jaylen going down is any margin for error, not all hope.  I wish had a dime for every time someone wrote me off and I'm willing to bet I'm no more competitive than those players, although it might be close.  Cowens is right.  I'm a pitbull and I do not like to lose.  What I want to see now is which players have some dog in them too.


Bob

.

When you get tested daily forCovid, you know within 2 days max when you got infected. Beginning proper treatment within 2 days of infection in a younger person pretty much stomps out all symptoms asap and eliminates long term lingering effects. For the Celtics staff not to know how to implement these tx protocols is a sign of incompetency.

With regards to covid testing I agree with Worcester 100%.

With respect to some players being injury prone, the answer is yes and it spreads across the entire spectrum of sports and in many cases the general public.

Some people have a predisposition for getting injured, catching colds and flus, recovering quickly or having illness or injury linger for long periods of time.

I do not think the injury calculation will have any impact on off season moves especially for young players that are still cost effective options.

Re injury and sports, I once had a MLB pitcher as a patient. He'd thrown a no hitter and then signed with the Tampa Bay Rays for $10M a year. He came to spring training, pitched a few lack luster games in April, then said his arm was sore. The Rays put him onthe disabled list, and he did not play for them again. We treated him at my clinic, and in my opinion he was fine. Good to go. No impairment. Rays staff said he was PUP. Player Unabled to Perform. Why? Because the Rays REALLY sucked back then and the club had an insurance policy on the pitcher ehich paid 70% of his salary. $7M large a year. Owners did the math and decided it was better to only lose $3M a year rather than $10M.

Do simiilar policies exist in the NBA? Jaylen is no fool. Notice that he played enough games even with his torn wrist ligament to warrant his almost $1/2M
bonus. I wonder if NBA owners have similar incentives. No doubt each NBA club earns more if the team advances into the playoffs, but I wonder if they have insurance policies on players.

I have no real opinion here as far as Covid is concerned. If it was easy enough to catch it within two days after testing why are over 550,000 people dead. And, as the pandemic continued it was younger people getting sick and having real issues getting over it. This is out of my league, I will condemn no one here as I believe the Auerbach Center was closed to all players for months. Blame the players? Go ahead. Again, I know nothing here

I, too, want to see who has the guts to come out in the next few games and show they want to play in the NBA. Many are fighting for their basketball lives

Bob,

I disagree with you on your Langford characterization. His first season he was out recovering from surgery on a thumb injured a year before he joined the team. If I remember correctly he also had a knee or ankle sprain in the G-league last year. This year he had the wrist and a concussion (which is hardly the kind of injury I would associate with being injury "prone"). I would say that injuries like tears, fractures, and inflammation are more the kind of injury that would alarm management. While surgery definitely costs more games out, can we really say that because an injury can be fixed with or without surgery it casts a player as more or less injury prone? So of what I would consider injuries (tears, fractures, inflammation) that should cause concern, Langford has had just three (thumb tendon, knee sprain, wrist) in three years. Brown had five this year alone. Of course Brown is playing a lot more minutes but still I have yet to hear anyone suggest he is injury prone.

bobheckler wrote:

dbrown4 wrote:Ownership has a tough row to hoe this summer for sure, the above data notwithstanding.  I don't think they can stand pat and I don't think they'll blow everything up.  Let's restate that.  They won't sit still and they won't blow everything up all the way through.  But Brad has to be the most uncomfortable job-wise.  The team expects huge turnovers every year.

You don't want to overreact or under-react.  But there will be some reacting personnel-wise to this abysmal season.

db    

dbrown,

There will be changes.  I've gone on record numerous times saying we need to clean out the bottom of the roster.  Will there be major changes in the roster in the top 7?  Who?  Thompson?  Maybe.  That would be too bad, he is doing exactly what he was signed to do, defend and board, but he's not irreplaceable.  Moving either of the Js would be a blockbuster trade and is unlikely (I had a GSW fan friend of mine text me last night and offered 5X All-Star Klay Thompson for Jaylen straight up.  I told him to check into AA or NA or whatever support group will help him with his issues.  Jayson is untouchable and Jaylen's close to it with a very reasonable team-friendly contract that runs through 2024.  He's only 24 1/2 now).  Smart?  If Smart goes it is only because of his contract renewal.  I don't think Danny would be able to trade him for a player who is either an All-Star, a future All-Star or someone who is All-NBA anything like Marcus is, not even for his expected higher salary and I don't want him to trade him for anybody less than those.  Kemba?  If only, but who would take his contract?  Danny's going to try like hell to retain Fournier, and he should.  If RWill is traded it will be because of his chronic injury history.  So, who does that leave that trading or waiving them would move the needle?  Kemba (perhaps unmoveable), Smart (hard to move for fair value precisely because he is valued, not only by Danny and Brad but by everyone else and they know they're not going to steal him for nothing), the Js (nope, not imo), RWill (possible), Thompson (maybe, but we won't get a lot in return) and Fournier.  There's our top 7, and only one of them (Thompson) or maybe two (RWill) are realistically on the block, and that's not a big move, and it has been our top 7 that haven't played together all season.

Pritchard has value in the trade market, but would we want to?  He's coming along ahead of schedule and he's cheaper than a New Orleans street walker @ #26 for 4 more years.  Same with Nesmith, although he's a bit more expensive, certainly not enough for that to matter though.  Would we want to move either of them?  Depends upon who we're getting in return, of course, but seriously?

Romeo can go, Grant Ojelaye can go (and he can take Semi Williams with him), Carsen can go but none of these players' losses, nor their replacements are likely to move the needle.  We could replace them with a better role player or two, and that'd be an upgrade, but not huge.  


Bob


.

Bob, you sound like David Griffin. A GM that talks about everything that cant be done.

worcester wrote:Who blames Brad for all this? Some, but not all. He'll be here next year, I hope with a better bench.

You’re right Worcester, I haven’t heard anyone on this board blame Brad for ALL that is wrong. He takes some share of it as does Danny, Wicked Wyc and some of the players. Everyone has their own measuring metrics as to how much goes to who bottom line is this sucks and has to get better. Nothing is either or here.

worcester wrote:Re injury and sports, I once had a MLB pitcher as a patient. He'd thrown a no hitter and then signed with the Tampa Bay Rays for $10M a year. He came to  spring training, pitched a few lack luster games in April, then said his arm was sore. The Rays put him onthe disabled list, and he did not play for them again. We treated him at my clinic, and in my opinion he was fine. Good to go. No impairment. Rays staff said he was PUP. Player Unabled to Perform. Why? Because the Rays REALLY sucked back then and the club had an insurance policy on the pitcher ehich paid 70% of his salary. $7M large a year. Owners did the math and decided it was better to only lose $3M a year rather than $10M.

Do simiilar policies exist in the NBA? Jaylen is no fool. Notice that he played enough games even with his torn wrist ligament to warrant his almost $1/2M
bonus. I wonder if NBA owners have similar incentives. No doubt each NBA club earns more if the team advances into the playoffs, but I wonder if they have  insurance policies on players.

W

The only thing I will say is that Jaylen had a sore wrist and told the Celtics and then he went to the Dr and they discovered the ligament damage. I do not think that was planed right down to the bonus incentive. The timing of the injury was not pre-planned.

Well it was a coincidence then that Jaylen played just enough games to get his bonus. I would have toughed it out like him to get a bonus. I'm not accusing him of dogging it. Instead I'm suspecting that he played through pain (before his knee injury) knowing that to quit would cost him money. Back in the day almost all NBA players played through pain and hurt to stay on the court. That's old school NBA, and I think Jaylen is old school.

Ktron wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

dbrown4 wrote:Ownership has a tough row to hoe this summer for sure, the above data notwithstanding.  I don't think they can stand pat and I don't think they'll blow everything up.  Let's restate that.  They won't sit still and they won't blow everything up all the way through.  But Brad has to be the most uncomfortable job-wise.  The team expects huge turnovers every year.

You don't want to overreact or under-react.  But there will be some reacting personnel-wise to this abysmal season.

db    

dbrown,

There will be changes.  I've gone on record numerous times saying we need to clean out the bottom of the roster.  Will there be major changes in the roster in the top 7?  Who?  Thompson?  Maybe.  That would be too bad, he is doing exactly what he was signed to do, defend and board, but he's not irreplaceable.  Moving either of the Js would be a blockbuster trade and is unlikely (I had a GSW fan friend of mine text me last night and offered 5X All-Star Klay Thompson for Jaylen straight up.  I told him to check into AA or NA or whatever support group will help him with his issues.  Jayson is untouchable and Jaylen's close to it with a very reasonable team-friendly contract that runs through 2024.  He's only 24 1/2 now).  Smart?  If Smart goes it is only because of his contract renewal.  I don't think Danny would be able to trade him for a player who is either an All-Star, a future All-Star or someone who is All-NBA anything like Marcus is, not even for his expected higher salary and I don't want him to trade him for anybody less than those.  Kemba?  If only, but who would take his contract?  Danny's going to try like hell to retain Fournier, and he should.  If RWill is traded it will be because of his chronic injury history.  So, who does that leave that trading or waiving them would move the needle?  Kemba (perhaps unmoveable), Smart (hard to move for fair value precisely because he is valued, not only by Danny and Brad but by everyone else and they know they're not going to steal him for nothing), the Js (nope, not imo), RWill (possible), Thompson (maybe, but we won't get a lot in return) and Fournier.  There's our top 7, and only one of them (Thompson) or maybe two (RWill) are realistically on the block, and that's not a big move, and it has been our top 7 that haven't played together all season.

Pritchard has value in the trade market, but would we want to?  He's coming along ahead of schedule and he's cheaper than a New Orleans street walker @ #26 for 4 more years.  Same with Nesmith, although he's a bit more expensive, certainly not enough for that to matter though.  Would we want to move either of them?  Depends upon who we're getting in return, of course, but seriously?

Romeo can go, Grant Ojelaye can go (and he can take Semi Williams with him), Carsen can go but none of these players' losses, nor their replacements are likely to move the needle.  We could replace them with a better role player or two, and that'd be an upgrade, but not huge.  


Bob


.

Bob, you sound like David Griffin. A GM that talks about everything that cant be done.

ktron,

David Griffin is a World Champion GM. He was able to convince LeBron to return to Cleveland. That's evidence of him focusing on what can be done. He made the bold decision to trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love, more evidence of focusing on what can be done. Thank you. I could do worse than be compared to him.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

Ktron wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

dbrown4 wrote:Ownership has a tough row to hoe this summer for sure, the above data notwithstanding.  I don't think they can stand pat and I don't think they'll blow everything up.  Let's restate that.  They won't sit still and they won't blow everything up all the way through.  But Brad has to be the most uncomfortable job-wise.  The team expects huge turnovers every year.

You don't want to overreact or under-react.  But there will be some reacting personnel-wise to this abysmal season.

db    

dbrown,

There will be changes.  I've gone on record numerous times saying we need to clean out the bottom of the roster.  Will there be major changes in the roster in the top 7?  Who?  Thompson?  Maybe.  That would be too bad, he is doing exactly what he was signed to do, defend and board, but he's not irreplaceable.  Moving either of the Js would be a blockbuster trade and is unlikely (I had a GSW fan friend of mine text me last night and offered 5X All-Star Klay Thompson for Jaylen straight up.  I told him to check into AA or NA or whatever support group will help him with his issues.  Jayson is untouchable and Jaylen's close to it with a very reasonable team-friendly contract that runs through 2024.  He's only 24 1/2 now).  Smart?  If Smart goes it is only because of his contract renewal.  I don't think Danny would be able to trade him for a player who is either an All-Star, a future All-Star or someone who is All-NBA anything like Marcus is, not even for his expected higher salary and I don't want him to trade him for anybody less than those.  Kemba?  If only, but who would take his contract?  Danny's going to try like hell to retain Fournier, and he should.  If RWill is traded it will be because of his chronic injury history.  So, who does that leave that trading or waiving them would move the needle?  Kemba (perhaps unmoveable), Smart (hard to move for fair value precisely because he is valued, not only by Danny and Brad but by everyone else and they know they're not going to steal him for nothing), the Js (nope, not imo), RWill (possible), Thompson (maybe, but we won't get a lot in return) and Fournier.  There's our top 7, and only one of them (Thompson) or maybe two (RWill) are realistically on the block, and that's not a big move, and it has been our top 7 that haven't played together all season.

Pritchard has value in the trade market, but would we want to?  He's coming along ahead of schedule and he's cheaper than a New Orleans street walker @ #26 for 4 more years.  Same with Nesmith, although he's a bit more expensive, certainly not enough for that to matter though.  Would we want to move either of them?  Depends upon who we're getting in return, of course, but seriously?

Romeo can go, Grant Ojelaye can go (and he can take Semi Williams with him), Carsen can go but none of these players' losses, nor their replacements are likely to move the needle.  We could replace them with a better role player or two, and that'd be an upgrade, but not huge.  


Bob


.

Bob, you sound like David Griffin. A GM that talks about everything that cant be done.

ktron,

David Griffin is a World Champion GM.  He was able to convince LeBron to return to Cleveland.  That's evidence of him focusing on what can be done.  He made the bold decision to trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love, more evidence of focusing on what can be done.  Thank you.  I could do worse than be compared to him.


Bob


.

#1 Right (he doesn’t write checks though)
#2 Wrong He had nothing to do with LeBron going back top Cleveland. It’s been well documented as to why he went back and it wasn’t Griff.
#3 Wrong again. That was a Lebron dictate. (He kicked and screamed about it) He was following orders.
PS. How many GM get blown out right after winning a NBA title? I know of one. No Names just initials, David Griffin. Let’s see how much longer He’s lasts in NO b4 he ends up back on NBA TV.

bobheckler wrote:

Ktron wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

dbrown4 wrote:Ownership has a tough row to hoe this summer for sure, the above data notwithstanding.  I don't think they can stand pat and I don't think they'll blow everything up.  Let's restate that.  They won't sit still and they won't blow everything up all the way through.  But Brad has to be the most uncomfortable job-wise.  The team expects huge turnovers every year.

You don't want to overreact or under-react.  But there will be some reacting personnel-wise to this abysmal season.

db    

dbrown,

There will be changes.  I've gone on record numerous times saying we need to clean out the bottom of the roster.  Will there be major changes in the roster in the top 7?  Who?  Thompson?  Maybe.  That would be too bad, he is doing exactly what he was signed to do, defend and board, but he's not irreplaceable.  Moving either of the Js would be a blockbuster trade and is unlikely (I had a GSW fan friend of mine text me last night and offered 5X All-Star Klay Thompson for Jaylen straight up.  I told him to check into AA or NA or whatever support group will help him with his issues.  Jayson is untouchable and Jaylen's close to it with a very reasonable team-friendly contract that runs through 2024.  He's only 24 1/2 now).  Smart?  If Smart goes it is only because of his contract renewal.  I don't think Danny would be able to trade him for a player who is either an All-Star, a future All-Star or someone who is All-NBA anything like Marcus is, not even for his expected higher salary and I don't want him to trade him for anybody less than those.  Kemba?  If only, but who would take his contract?  Danny's going to try like hell to retain Fournier, and he should.  If RWill is traded it will be because of his chronic injury history.  So, who does that leave that trading or waiving them would move the needle?  Kemba (perhaps unmoveable), Smart (hard to move for fair value precisely because he is valued, not only by Danny and Brad but by everyone else and they know they're not going to steal him for nothing), the Js (nope, not imo), RWill (possible), Thompson (maybe, but we won't get a lot in return) and Fournier.  There's our top 7, and only one of them (Thompson) or maybe two (RWill) are realistically on the block, and that's not a big move, and it has been our top 7 that haven't played together all season.

Pritchard has value in the trade market, but would we want to?  He's coming along ahead of schedule and he's cheaper than a New Orleans street walker @ #26 for 4 more years.  Same with Nesmith, although he's a bit more expensive, certainly not enough for that to matter though.  Would we want to move either of them?  Depends upon who we're getting in return, of course, but seriously?

Romeo can go, Grant Ojelaye can go (and he can take Semi Williams with him), Carsen can go but none of these players' losses, nor their replacements are likely to move the needle.  We could replace them with a better role player or two, and that'd be an upgrade, but not huge.  


Bob


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Bob, you sound like David Griffin. A GM that talks about everything that cant be done.

ktron,

David Griffin is a World Champion GM.  He was able to convince LeBron to return to Cleveland.  That's evidence of him focusing on what can be done.  He made the bold decision to trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love, more evidence of focusing on what can be done.  Thank you.  I could do worse than be compared to him.


Bob


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I actually thought that was a terrible trade for Cavs at the time, I thought Wiggins was going to be the next superstar wing type; but Kevin Love did have some big games during that playoff run and he and TT were just enough at the 4-5 to make it work for the Cavs. Wiggins is now a huge underachiever.

Regarding the original question of the post - a lot of being injury free or injury prone is luck. That being said, I think it is possible that some people have better awareness of body positioning and better body control and coordination. These abilities allow them to adjust their body mid air so the fall/land in a safer weigh. I would argue it is a type of athleticism, different from the athleticism we normally think of (i.e. explosive jumping and speed).