According to Quick, Nic hurt his right shoulder in this morning's practice, though Nate says this is only a minor injury and he should be able to play on Sunday in the Fanfest. Didn't he hurt this same shoulder in EuroBall this past summer? I hope this isn't a recurring injury throughout the season. Man, that's the downside of playing with national teams- more wear and tear on the body and more risk for injury.
Ive said this since summer... the euro league thing will catch up to Batum and Rudy this year. Batums shoulder will be an issue. maybe there will be no need to speculate on who starts at SF. I have a feeling at some point... batum will miss extended time cause he never got it taken care of. But we have webster... no big loss.
Actually, I thought Nico was playing with the hurt shoulder the last part of the season, and it was affecting his game. I hate it when our players play international ball on "national" teams in the summer. It wears them out (Rudy and Nico were already worn out during the regular season, let alone the playoffs) and increases their injury risk. They need to save it for their day jobs. That goes for all our players, not just the euros.
That is the downside of playing for their national teams. But the upside is they get good experience.
I can see how international competition would affect guys like Roy or LMA, who carry a huge load game-in and game-out, but for Nico and Rudy, I only see upside.
They don't really play that many minutes during international competition but I agree with Dante, it has it's ups and downs. Nic and Rudy were playing in very competitive games that definitely made them better, but participating in those games could easily result in an injury. Lets just hope Nic stays healthy.
I'm glad Nic played this summer, I think the experience gain outweighs the injury loss in his case. As pleasantly surprising as his rookie season was he still was very green throughout the season, then basically worthless in the playoffs. Getting him some more confidence and burn could have huge benefits. I have mixed feelings with Rudy, he is already quite polished but perhaps he gained some skills.
