Kawhi Leonard's quad injury continues to baffle Gregg Popovich

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/kawhi-leonards-quad-injury-continues-baffle-gregg-popovich-165651465.html





Kawhi Leonard's quad injury continues to baffle Gregg Popovich






DJ Dunson,Ball Don't Lie 1 hour 59 minutes ago








More than a month into the season, there’s still no timeline for Kawhi Leonard’s return.




We don’t expect to hear much from Kawhi Leonard, the San Antonio Spurs’ silent assassin. But the ongoing radio silence on his return to the court these days is making people a little anxious.


The Spurs have been reticent to discuss the quadriceps injury that has kept Leonard sidelined for all of the 2017-18 season. Early in October, Leonard was diagnosed with chronic tendinopathy in his right leg, a condition that can result in pain surrounding a tendon that’s become overloaded due to overuse.


If there was any hope for Leonard’s recovery from his significant bout of chronic tendinopathy, surely the wise, sage, but sometimes secretive Gregg Popovich would put people at ease. Unfortunately, Popovich has projected a state of confusion about Leonard’s lagging recovery process. From Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com

 
“Never, never,” Popovich said when asked whether he has seen such a condition hampering one of his players. “What’s really strange is that [point guard] Tony [Parker] has the same injury, but even worse. They had to go operate on his quad tendon and put it back together or whatever they did to it. So to have two guys, that’s pretty incredible. I had never seen it before those guys.”

Parker has been cleared to play after rupturing his left quadriceps tendon in May, but Leonard has been rehabbing since the summer and the paucity of positive updates has been jarring. A video clip of Leonard struggling to climb the stairs of the Spurs’ team plane last month only amplified concerns about his injury.


The absence of progress has mystified everyone, including Popovich, who has turned “sooner rather than later” into his standard response to questions about Leonard’s rehabilitation.


Kyle Anderson has been a competent replacement-level player in Leonard’s stead. For the long-term, though, there’s no replacement for the best two-way player in the league.


Orthopedic sports surgeon Sabrina Strickland told the San Antonio-Express-News that tendinopathy can be an extremely tricky condition to rehab:

 
“They were probably thinking he was a little bit better and he started training a little bit more, reactivated it and then rather then get it really, really inflamed, they backed up and started doing something a little more aggressive (in terms of treatment),” Strickland said.

“Typically, with rest and physical therapy, they get over it and get back (in action) pretty quickly,” Strickland said. “But with ones that are more chronic, that’s when players tend to have more aggressive treatment, something more evasive than just the rest-and- rehab route, such as platelet rich plasma (therapy), and that can slow them down for a while because you have to allow some time for that to work.”

In Leonard’s case, this is the third and most serious instance of a quad injury he’s suffered. Any time you mention the word “chronic” in reference to an athlete’s injury, it’s concerning.


The Spurs have gotten by in his absence, opening the season 11-7 to sit fourth in the Western Conference behind strong play from LaMarcus Aldridge and timely contributions from a mix of veterans (Pau Gasol, Rudy Gay, Manu Ginobili) and young players (Anderson, Dejounte Murray, Bryn Forbes, Brandon Paul). To prove that they’re a viable Western contender that can present a stylistic challenge to the Golden State Warriors’ conference hegemony, though, they’ll need Leonard back and firing on all cylinders. Five weeks into the season, when they’ll be able to get that remains a mystery.



bob
MY NOTE:  CLEARLY, they are not the same team without him.  Pop's the best, but what does it say about Brad that he loses Hayward 5 minutes into the first game of the season and only loses a total of 2 games after that one?  Danny and Wyc should do the same thing next year they did the year we signed Horford (and tried to sign KD), they should sign Brad to another 3 year extension halfway through his 6 year contract.  Send a message to the league's players, "if you want to play for the best young coach in NBA, he'll be here".



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This sucks. I love Kawhi's game.


KJ

I also love watching Leonard play. Quite the competitor and quite the talent. Clearly one of the best players in the league.

For him not to be playing there has to still be something wrong with his leg. There must be something that their doctors are missing. Perhaps their medical staff has earned a "fine" of some sort?

Bob, I think that there is some difference in what a coach does when he knows that his star is going to be out for the entire season compared to what the same coach may do if he thinks that his star is going to be out for a much shorter period of time. With what is thought to be a short term injury may not require shaking up the entire defensive and offensive style the coach prefers where when you know that you are losing a star type player for the year you may actually shake things up to a greater level. I think that the tone taken with the rest of the team also varies according to the supposed length of the star player's injury.

However, I love your idea of signing Stevens right today for a bunch more years beyond the length of his current contract.

Typically one needs 6 weeks after PRP therapy for the procedure to take full effect, and during that time non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as advil or aspirin are verboten. Even curcumin.

worcester wrote:Typically one needs 6 weeks after PRP therapy for the procedure to take full effect, and during that time non-steroidal anti-inflammatories such as advil or aspirin are verboten. Even curcumin.

Worcester, is there any real evidence, beyond anecdotal reports, that PRP actually works? As I understand it, blood is drawn from tbe patient, and then spun in a centrifuge such that the platelets (and their associated growth factors) settle at the bottom of the tube. Much of the liquid part of blood is then removed, resulting in a more concentrated solution of platelets. This solution of concentrated platelets/growth factors is then injected and the growth factors promote healing. I have dome doubts regarding the underlying principle. First, even if you concentrate the platelets, once you inject them back in the patient, they will immediately be diluted over the entire blood volume. Thus the concentration of platelets/growth factors has not really changed. Second, the growth factors are inside the platelet cells - they need to be secreted from the cells to do have an effect. I wonder if what we are seeing is the placebo effect, which can be incredibly poweful. A quick scan of the literature suggests there is very little evidence from controlled studies that it actually works. From your previous posts, I got the impression you are a doctor or a medical professional, so I would be interested to hear your opinion.

Shamrock, I am a doctor, and I don't play one on TV. There is a good deal of evidence that PRP works, and mind you, there are no double blind peer reviewed studies that most surgical procedures work, especially back surgeries. I don't do it on patients but refer out, and my patients have had very good success. My friend Dr. Kassicieh has a website that talks about how PRP works. Here it is:

http://prpstopspain.com/platelet-rich-plasma/

worcester wrote:Shamrock, I am a doctor, and I don't play one on TV. There is a good deal of evidence that PRP works, and mind you, there are no double blind peer reviewed studies that most surgical procedures work, especially back surgeries. I don't do it on patients but refer out, and my patients have had very good success. My friend Dr. Kassicieh has a website that talks about how PRP works. Here it is:

http://prpstopspain.com/platelet-rich-plasma/

Thanks Worcester - interesting read...