![]() ![]() ![]() Just kidding - they are, I swear! But they haven’t acted as such.) Deng gets by with crafty movement that generates a teensy bit of separation, and Jimmy Butler hasn’t grasped a larger share of the offense to date. (He belongs in the D-League, but I’m not sure the Bulls are familiar with the D-League. James has played nine minutes all season, Dunleavy is mostly a spot-up guy with a bit of one-dribble-and-pass panache, and Teague hasn’t resembled an NBA player in his limited time. It’s true that this Chicago team, with Mike Dunleavy and Mike James/Marquis Teague in the places of Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli, is comparatively lacking in ball handlers. 500 could get you a damn trophy in the Eastern Conference this season. The East is a giant pile of flaming basketball dung after Indiana, Miami, Atlanta, and Chicago, and the Bulls proved last season that Tom Thibodeau’s defense and some canny ball movement is enough to keep them around. The Bulls will make the playoffs if they wish to do so. Snipping out the damaged portion of the meniscus allows for much quicker recovery, but snipping out too much of it can leave the player vulnerable to long-term bone-on-bone issues. A full mending carries a recovery time that can last between three and four months, and often even longer Westbrook took nearly six months to fully recover from his meniscus tear, and that was before learning he needed a second clean-up operation before this season. ![]() The Bulls will likely choose to mend the torn portion of Rose’s meniscus if they can, though the medial side has weaker blood flow, which can make it more challenging to pull off a full stitching, according to several doctors and trainers. A 2011 study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found NBA players were disproportionately likely to tear the lateral meniscus, the portion of cartilage that does a bit more athletic work and carries a longer recovery time. Rose tore the medial portion of his meniscus, the piece of cartilage that runs along the inside of a player’s knee. This is a taxed-out team, built around Rose, constructed to win the title now. The Bulls find themselves in a very tricky situation. But any team that learns some small truth about injuries will have gained a valuable edge. It will never be an exact science - not in our lifetimes, anyway. Health plays a giant role in deciding the champion - in literally every season.įor all the attention on the wonky basketball mysteries SportVU tracking cameras might solve, the real holy grail is combining that technology with others that might lead to some tiny slice of enlightenment on injury prediction and prevention. We would do well to remember season-altering issues to contender centerpieces (Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Willis Reed, Jerry West, Kevin Garnett, Oscar Robertson, Dave DeBusschere, Russell Westbrook, Andrew Bynum, Isiah Thomas, etc.) and sub-stars (Jameer Nelson, Sam Cassell, Lakers-era Karl Malone, Gus Johnson, and on, and on) the next time someone screams about how pathetic and “unclutch” it is that Player X hasn’t won a ring. All the VERY LOUD SHOUTING about “ringzzzzz” might obscure this, but how many rings would Michael Jordan own if Scottie Pippen had developed chronic knee issues? Bill Russell went down midway through the 1958 Finals, which the Celtics lost, and injuries both major and minor have tipped the balance of every postseason since. With Derrick Rose officially lost for the season, we don’t need any more reminders about just how much luck and health-related fortune goes into winning even a single championship. Some thoughts after a very depressing weekend of NBA basketball has left the league feeling unusually unsettled for this time of season, with scads of injuries and so many (Eastern Conference) teams with high internal expectations floundering horribly: ![]()
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