Zach Collins underwent revision surgery today to repair a left medial malleolus stress fracture.

Reality hurts. Some people still hold on the idea that Oden was the right pick if he wasn’t injured.

 

I don’t think Giles should be singing about this.

 

Can we have Wenyan back please? He looked better than Zach anyway in the very limited sample we saw.

 

Sure "reality."

 

I googled NBA players who have had this injury before and this was the first result:

https://jp.reuters.com/article/instant-article/idUSTRE6BF6O820101218

FUCK. Yao played 5 games that year before getting this injury and he never played again. Of course he was dealing with a lot of recurring leg and foot issues before. I seriously hope this isn't the trajectory for Zach, because their injury history is starting to look very similar.

 

I really like this sentiment and we shouldn't judge players on anything besides effort and judgment but we only have so much cap room and so many draft picks. So we have to be critical of how that money and those draft picks are spent. I don't judge draft picks close to as harshly as I judge grossly overpaying players.

You are right though, it should only be the GMs being judged for picks and contracts. Coaches being judged for who they play, when they play them and other tactical decisions. Players really should only be judged by fans for how hard they play and the judgment they use while playing at whatever effort level they give.

 

Is Collins absolutely out for the rest of the season? Could he still be back for the playoffs? The playoffs start at end of may, that's stil 5 months

 

From the limited amount of googling I've done, players miss a variable amount of time depending on where the fracture occurred and the type of player.

Durant only missed about a month with a fracture in his foot. Embiid missed 4-6 months and then basically two years due to reoccurring fractures in his foot. Not many players have had ankle fractures. Alex Len had an ankle fracture but that was before he was drafted, so he didn't lose time. Yao's career was ended by an ankle fracture, but obviously that was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

Exactly. Assets and value and everything on the managerial side of things is really outside the control of players. I hated ET's contract, but it certainly wasn't his fault. Same with Zach. I don't love Zach as a player, but no one can deny his dedication and effort.

You know, maybe this is a personality thing. I think regret is dumb. ESPECIALLY in something like evaluating talent. "What could have been..." is an absurd notion. Deal with it or take it out on Neil Olshey.

 

I’d be okay with never seeing him in a Blazer jersey again. I wish him well in his recovery, though.

 

Ankle and foot injuries are really hard to call with big men... just look at this second surgery for instance. So there was something that says this second surgery should take 8-12 weeks to recover from but we just have to wait and see. Zach was aggressively rehabbing the first surgery and now had to have the second... so would it be smart for him to be just as aggressive or maybe be a little more conservative (no need for any political commentary) this time around?

That's for Zach to decide, the wise choice would probably be to take the rest of this season off and then either take the QA or whatever the best longer term deal is out there for him. Zach may be more ambitious and go all out to make a late season return, so he can increase his value going into free agency. We'll see.

 

He’s projected to miss 3-5 weeks and it’s a grade 2 ankle sprain, not a stress fracture to a part of the ankle that can be tricky to heal.

 

I'm pretty sure it's a lack of blood vessels to the area that's a major issue with injuries to the malleolus. Without blood flow, it's tough to heal well.

 

Stress fractures also develop over time. It's not usually a single impact that causes the fracture. Zach probably didn't have this when he initially got the surgery, but it developed as he rehabbed the ankle.

 

This is potentially his third season-ending injury in the past year...

I had very high hopes for Zach and have clung stubbornly to them, but I'm ready to view him like a late-career, poor man's Bernard King: never to be counted on, but good for an occasional big contribution when between IR stints. His contract going forward should be significantly less than MLE, because he can't be relied on to be healthy often enough to produce at that level.

 

Come on, man, try to be better than this with your posts. Setbacks with recovery from injuries happen. At the start of camp, Zach was working on his game and recovery. He was expected back by the end of January. Obviously, as he ramped up his workouts, he started having some pain and when they checked it out they found the injury wasn’t healed right. How is that lying?

 

It would be very interesting if s2 existed while Bill Walton played for Portland.

 

Yeah, that's one thing about a thread I started right before the season started that was addressing the term "CJ haters", a lot of the criticism about CJ's game has to do with fit (that's a Stotts and Olshey issue) and what he's being paid (that's an Olshey issue solely). Other than those two things, I think CJ should give a little more on defense and pass the ball the way he has been the last couple of games but other than that I love what he does and can do.

I tend to forget about picks outside the top 5-7 pretty quickly as every GM misses guys every draft. Bad contracts are harder to forgive GMs for but they are never, never, never a player's fault. These guys have an average of 4.8 years in the league and only around a decade if they're good to make as much as they can.

 

Yes, and pay players according to what they have done or are doing on the court. Not according to some rose-colored dream the GM has of what they might blossom into.

 

I was referring to Morant’s ankle sprain and how the recovery time is different than Collins’ injury.