I think a year is a stretch. PG came back late in the season to get some reps but he was terrible. Took him 2+ yrs.
That's all true, but Nurk is carrying around a solid 60lbs more weight than PG. A guy that big will have a lot more pressure on his leg. Also, PG came back for 8 games at the end of the regular season, but he was terrible. 15mpg, 9pts, 3 rebs, 36%fg. He was maybe 50% of where he wanted to be. He was pretty bad for his first 4 games in the fall when he did come back too. So the first time he played an NBA game like his old self was November 4th, a full 15 months after the injury. It would take 3 more seasons until he evolved into his current MVP caliber self. So now imagine it's early to mid December. We're around .400, and Nurk xrays look good. He's laboring up and down the court because he's out of shape, and he's useless on pick and roll defense because he can't move his feet quick enough. Do you think it's likely, given our history with leg problems, Portland shrugs and says "What the hell, let's play him 28mpg" with their 25 year old, locked-up-on-a-long-contract center? The Jason Quick article writes itself: "Remember how ruined Sabonis was because the Soviets brought him back to soon." It's going to be very, very tempting to shut Nurk down for the season. It starts with "playing it safe for another month", and then we get so buried in the standings that at that point the team goes all-in on tanking for a draft pick. We've been down this path with Roy and Oden. I'm tamping my expectations way, way down.
The same Kanter that teams constantly attack due to his defensive inability? The playoffs make it worse since starters play more minutes. IMO, Kanter has been a nice pickup for the regular season but is worth far less in the playoffs. Let's hope Collins can step up.
Kanter is very helpful off the bench. Kanter is not, in any way, a viable replacement for the key to our defense.
The closest analog to Nurk's injury is Paul George injury: - Broke both tibia and fibula on Aug 1. - Put weight on leg in late September - Shooting in October - Full practice end of February - Played in game on April 5 and didn't really look like himself. His hurdle seemed more mental. So about 8 months from injury to back on the floor. I'd add at least a few months to that. The key thing is keeping Nurk engaged mentally and in good physical condition. He can't put on more weight.
I had a very similar experience my freshmen year in college as we were playing a game at Lewis and Clark State in Lewiston, Idaho. In the first inning of the game a ball was hit up the middle on the shortstops side with a runner on first. I move in position towards second base and the shortstop waves me off as he is going to make the play at second himself and the runner (who was also a football player for his school) and came in high and hard and broke his leg in very similar spot to where Nurkic did it. I was only about 3' away and I still remember that sight of his leg hanging and the sound of the bones cracking. Ugly situation. Here's to a quick recovery Nurk and keep the spirits up as that will be important in your rehab.
I hope he has a good support system ( and I believe he does/will), and doesn't suffer from the demons that Greg did when he was recovering (turning to alcohol, etc).
This appears to be a very tight group and I don't see Lillard letting things slide as we have one of the best leaders a team can have.
Except PG is more athletic so his leg was still producing and absorbing as much force when jumping/landing and accelerating/decelerating.
With my 4 year old grandson all his grandma needs to do is kiss his owie and he's better. Can we fly Grandma Nurk over here to do that for Nurk. Or maybe we can sign Leonard's wife. She has a nice shot.
To any Salary Cap Wizards here, for Next season could we apply for Disabled player exception and that would help us resign our free agents? https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2017/12/hoops-rumors-glossary-disabled-player-exception.html
In order to be eligible for that, Nurkic would have to be evaluated and determined "by an NBA-designated physician or Fitness to Play panel that the player is substantially more likely than not to be unable to play through the following June 15." So, if his healing over the course of the summer puts him on schedule to play at all next year, then there can be no disabled player exception.
I fully agree with the first statement, not so much with the second. His two leg injuries are the type often associated with nutritional deficits. The first one I felt was from dropping weight too fast, but he seemed like he was in a much healthier spot this year. Being light [for his build] obviously didn't help prevent this horrific injury, and he hasn't had these problems when bulked up, as far as I know, so there's no reason to conclude that adding weight during rehab will be a bad thing for his health. I was cautiously optimistic that Nurk's game had evolved to the point where trapping Dame wouldn't be as effective in the playoffs. Sucks that we clinched a berth the day he goes down... Now the main goal is to avoid 14 straight.
