LaMarcus Aldridge Out for 6-8 Weeks (Left Thumb)

[bowdown]

LMA is going to miss 6-8 weeks with a ligament tear in his left thumb.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12214 ... il-blazers

[Andrew]

Terrible luck for a team that's as close as anyone to being a frontrunner in a wide open league this year.

[bowdown]

He should be back for about 20 games or so in the regular season. Should get Portland in the playoffs and get himself in shape.

[NovU]

I'm guessing it'll take 4-5 games for him to fully get back into the rhythm as well and teammates need adjusting again with him in & out. But at least the Blazers will be ok for the playoffs so it seems. Unfortunately though this will affect their standings in a tight western conference. *sigh

On top of that, Batum just can't stay healthy ffs.

[Mandich]

What's up with the Blazers? Does the NBA sabotage them year by year ? Worst injury luck team in basketball.

[Lamrock]

God damn it. All the sudden OKC once again becomes the favorite to win the division. About to lose $20 over that one. Last year LA went down and the team nearly managed to miss the playoffs after starting the season on a 70 win pace. Losing 5 of the last 6 already and with Lopez, Freeland and maybe Batum out awhile, Portland might be out of the top 8 by March.

[Lamrock]

http://deadspin.com/lamarcus-aldridge-w ... 1681569890

Season's back on!

[I Hate Mondays]

I think he is playing with fire. There is a huge risk his injury gets worse...But man, my full respect to him.

[Andrew]

For what it's worth:

There are no assurances of how effectively, or how long, Aldridge can play with the injury, but there’s belief in the Portland organization that the long-term risk of this decision is minimal. Aldridge would’ve been required to wear a splint even after returning from surgery, sources told Yahoo Sports, so allowing him to try playing now isn’t believed to hold significantly more consequences.

Hopefully, they'r right.

[Moz]

Isn't Luol Deng got that type of injury back then and he too opted not to have surgery and he just went fine all along?

[[Q]]

For what it's worth:

There are no assurances of how effectively, or how long, Aldridge can play with the injury, but there’s belief in the Portland organization that the long-term risk of this decision is minimal. Aldridge would’ve been required to wear a splint even after returning from surgery, sources told Yahoo Sports, so allowing him to try playing now isn’t believed to hold significantly more consequences.

Hopefully, they'r right.

He must have learned from his buddy Brandon roy

[Lamrock]

I see a lot of people comparing this to Brandon Roy's ill-fated return from a torn meniscus after just nine days in 2010. However, this is nothing like that. Roy had major knee problems dating back to college, which is probably why he wasn't taken first overall. Aldridge's injury meanwhile is already as bad as it's gonna get. I'm sure Aldridge won't have much fun playing with it, but as yesterday proved, he'll be effective. Big props to one of my favorite players. Hard to believe he used to have a reputation as "soft" - he's showing some real heart here.

[shadowgrin]

Isn't Luol Deng got that type of injury back then and he too opted not to have surgery and he just went fine all along?

He had surgery late in the offseason after competing in some international games for his nation, media/fans were whining why he didn't have surgery asap and as to why he even bothered to play international ball possibly making the injury worse iirc.

[Andrew]

Hard to believe he used to have a reputation as "soft" - he's showing some real heart here.

Sometimes all it takes is a single incident that's often blown out of proportion, and these labels somehow stick. Take Vince Carter for example. For a while there, he had a reputation for being injury prone, yet he's only had a couple of seasons where he's missed a really significant amount of games (22 in 2002, 39 in 2003). The fact that it happened in back to back years probably doesn't help, but bottom line, aside from those two seasons, he's played in at least 73 games each year except for 2012, when he played in 61.

With Aldridge, the "soft" label sounds like a myopic opinion that's been repeated as a second hand criticism without much further thought or analysis. Mind you, I wasn't aware of it until you brought it up.