Part of being a good athlete is being durable. You have to take the bumps and bruises and fatigue and recover quickly. In hindsight, Collins may not have played enough at Gonzaga to really demonstrate whether he had that quality.
Or, maybe he's been out with an injury for 9-10 months and getting back to practicing and playing at an NBA level after a long time off takes a body a bit of time to adjust to?
I'm not sure I would classify a repetitive stress reaction as a significant injury. Lots of NBA players have had stress reactions, or even stress fractures, missed a few weeks while they heal, and then resume mostly injury-free careers. Michael Jordan had a stress fracture, not reaction, in the '85-86 season and he seemed to do okay. Collins's injury's timing sucks, but it's not likely to be a big deal long term.
I hope you are correct. I have fairly low expectations for the kid - but that doesn't mean I wish him ill!
Expectations for his ankle and expectations for his impact as a player are two different things. I have little doubt his ankle will heal without problem. I'm concerned that, as a player, he still hasn't figured out how to be a consistent offensive threat by now. That gives me pause as to thinking that he's a long term impact player for the Blazers. Bigs can be notoriously slow to get up to speed, and he did have only one year of college ball, so I'm not ready to give up on him just yet.
I agree. This would have been his 3rd season and yes this should have been the year that would have told us if he has long term offensive potential for the Blazers. But he has not played this year so I think we have to wait one more year before we know for sure.
2 significant injuries? His shoulder and what else? What he has now is a sprained ankle which happens to many players every season.
Greg Oden was not only useful, he was practically essential to revive the long dormant comedy sub genre of tripod jokes.
Who says he isn't/wasn't useful?? He "cracked" under the pressure of too may jokes about his fragility and even today, continues to be the butt of an occasional joke.