How healthy will the Celtics be?

[Alleyoopster]

It's probable that the biggest impediment to the Celtics making the playoffs next year could result, not from playing against better opponents, rather a rash of injuries. 

Looking at the roster we have a number of players with predispositions to them.    I realize that everyone gets injured in some form during the course of the year.  However, I’m talking about the more serious cases.
 
I made a list of these players and their (pre)existing ailments.  I’m sure I left out some and over-exaggerated on others.  My concern is that we might be a lot better on paper than on the actual court.  Sure hope this is not the case. 

Amir Johnson – ankle and 10 years in the league.  Put them both together…that’s a lot of wear and tear. 

David Lee – Back injury, hamstring, hip surgery – 10 years or more in the league.  His back injury worries me most.  There is not much one can do to overcome back pain.  Hopefully, this injury has healed for good.

Perry Jones III – super fragile knee.  I know the story … low risk possible high reward.
 
Could Amir, David and Perry turn out to be fool’s gold?  Let’s hope not.
 
Sullinger….his back, weight, and foot/toe fracture.  His back will always be a concern.  His extra weight will only add to the possibility of getting injured again. 

Avery Bradley…name the body part . Lol  Actually, he’s been relatively healthy of late.  I think the reason may be that he doesn’t give 150% on every defensive situation like he did the first two seasons in Boston. 

Marcus Smart – ankle and hand.   He should learn from Avery.  Going all out on every play catches up with you.  His effort plus his muscular physique make me wonder how durable he might turn out to be.
 
Olynyk – plantar fasciitis, ankle(?)  I always thought plantar fasciitis was a chronic ailment.  He seems to have not had any adverse effects over the past two years. 

James Young….is he an injury concern?  He was out in the beginning of last year due to an accident.  That doesn’t count.  Hasn’t he missed a number of other games due to one problem or another? 

The first four players I mentioned first (Amir, David, Jared and Sullinger) concern me most… the others not so much. 

[max215]

One of the beauties of having good depth is that guys won't get overworked, helping to prevent injuries. And when we do have to deal with injuries, the replacements won't be huge downgrades. The only injury that could be a serious impediment would be Isaiah IMO as he is the only proven perimeter scorer and playmaker on the team. I'm not sure what the exact record was, but when Isaiah went down last year, the team did not look too good.

[Ilikesports17]

It's probable that the biggest impediment to the Celtics making the playoffs next year could result, not from playing against better opponents, rather a rash of injuries. 

Looking at the roster we have a number of players with predispositions to them.    I realize that everyone gets injured in some form during the course of the year.  However, I’m talking about the more serious cases.
 
I made a list of these players and their (pre)existing ailments.  I’m sure I left out some and over-exaggerated on others.  My concern is that we might be a lot better on paper than on the actual court.  Sure hope this is not the case. 

Amir Johnson – ankle and 10 years in the league.  Put them both together…that’s a lot of wear and tear. 

David Lee – Back injury, hamstring, hip surgery – 10 years or more in the league.  His back injury worries me most.  There is not much one can do to overcome back pain.  Hopefully, this injury has healed for good.

Perry Jones III – super fragile knee.  I know the story … low risk possible high reward.
 
Could Amir, David and Perry turn out to be fool’s gold?  Let’s hope not.
 
Sullinger….his back, weight, and foot/toe fracture.  His back will always be a concern.  His extra weight will only add to the possibility of getting injured again. 

Avery Bradley…name the body part . Lol  Actually, he’s been relatively healthy of late.  I think the reason may be that he doesn’t give 150% on every defensive situation like he did the first two seasons in Boston. 

Marcus Smart – ankle and hand.   He should learn from Avery.  Going all out on every play catches up with you.  His effort plus his muscular physique make me wonder how durable he might turn out to be.
 
Olynyk – plantar fasciitis, ankle(?)  I always thought plantar fasciitis was a chronic ailment.  He seems to have not had any adverse effects over the past two years. 

James Young….is he an injury concern?  He was out in the beginning of last year due to an accident.  That doesn’t count.  Hasn’t he missed a number of other games due to one problem or another? 

The first four players I mentioned first (Amir, David, Jared and Sullinger) concern me most… the others not so much.

Jared and Sullinger are the same player and Im assuming you arent worried about Perry Jones so Im gonna assume you meant Avery Bradley.

at the gaurd, Thomas probably starts and pushes Smart to the 2 unless Rozier Young or Hunter prove their value. You could also see Turner move up to the 2 and slot in Crowder at the 3.

Rozier and Hunter would play more minutes. at the 3 it would mostly be Turner and crowder with Jerebko getting some spot minutes. At the 4 and 5 youd be hurt the most as you lose arguably your 3 best bigs. I would expect to see KO and Zeller start with Jerebko and Mickey coming off the bench but it is possible that you could actually see Zeller start with Jerebko and then KO and Mickey off the bench as those skillsets compliment eachother pretty well.

Now losing 4 of your best players is never good. However I would say the Celtics are one of the b est fit teams to take these injuries. In fact I think 1 or 2 injuries might even be necessary to keep this team together in terms of chemistry.

[Evantime34]

I feel like the Celtics are the team most able to deal with injuries. We might get worse if a player gets injured but the drop off between our starters and our bench players are probably less than anyone in the league allowing us to best deal with injuries.

[mef730]

Very healthy. They've got a very nice rotation.

Of course, should we find ourselves on the playoffs bubble with ten games left to go, I have a feeling that they will become quite frail.

Mike

[Celtics4ever]

Amir Johnson – ankle and 10 years in the league.  Put them both together…that’s a lot of wear and tear.

   Agree, an ankle only has so many miles on them.   But he is a real professional and I think that will help him.

David Lee – Back injury, hamstring, hip surgery – 10 years or more in the league.  His back injury worries me most.  There is not much one can do to overcome back pain.  Hopefully, this injury has healed for good.

  Hopefully, the rest he got last year will help him in this regard.

Perry Jones III – super fragile knee.  I know the story … low risk possible high reward.

  Agree, if he pans out great, if not (yawn).
 

Sullinger….his back, weight, and foot/toe fracture.  His back will always be a concern.  His extra weight will only add to the possibility of getting injured again.

   His mindset is of concern to me, as well was his weight and conditioning issues.   I think he will show up in better shape because it is a contract year but I do not think he will show up in even remotely good shape or it will make a huge difference.   I think he already thinks he is the man, why else would you show up year after year out of shape, keep shooting ill advised shots, not run the court, and only make a marginal effort on defense?   Folks will say coaches told him to take the three, but for several years they have also told him that want to lose weights and he has not met his conditioning goals.

Avery Bradley…name the body part . Lol  Actually, he’s been relatively healthy of late.  I think the reason may be that he doesn’t give 150% on every defensive situation like he did the first two seasons in Boston. 

  I too, see him as a little injury prone.

Marcus Smart – ankle and hand.   He should learn from Avery.  Going all out on every play catches up with you.  His effort plus his muscular physique make me wonder how durable he might turn out to be.
 

  Muscles protect the body somewhat.   I think a guy with muscles can take more punishment than a bone thin guy all things considered equal.   A lot of his issues are from his play-style as you say.  He plays hard and he goes all out.  That is fun to watch but a recipe for injury.

Olynyk – plantar fasciitis, ankle(?)  I always thought plantar fasciitis was a chronic ailment.  He seems to have not had any adverse effects over the past two years. 

  I have always thought he was a tad soft.   But he did rip Kevin Love's arm out of socket and hurt the Cavs in doing so.

James Young….is he an injury concern?  He was out in the beginning of last year due to an accident.  That doesn’t count.  Hasn’t he missed a number of other games due to one problem or another?

  I think Young is mentally soft as well.   I thought he got injured in summer league so he did not have the pressure to perform.   Guys do it, he did a lot of work in the off-season but it really did not show up on the court.   I could be wrong on this but it is my hunch.   I have been a bouncer and you learn to read people at that job.   We will see.

A THOUSAND CURSES TO THE OP!  Hope we did not jinx the team.

[Hemingway]

Every team will have at least an injury or two during the season. If this is our roster going into the season, an injury or two might be welcomed as we have too many guys to begin with. We didn't really miss Sully last year and we added Lee and Johnson and only lost Bass for big men depth not even counting rookies.