Ainge: KG has a spur

[sacCsfan]

Hi fellow Cs diehards,
Love this site! Longtime fan (saw Havlicek play in his last season; shuddered through John Y Brown years) and consistent blog lurker here. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this, but I finally had to register to post -first time- Danny Ainge's description of what's wrong with KG. Per DA on the April 1 WEEI Big Show,

[my paraphrase follows]
... it's a spur that is pressing on a tendon, and.. while surgery may have been discussed as one possible down the road option, it is not something under consideration right now..

It's at about 03:37 of the show at this link:
http://audio.weei.com/m/22053576/danny_ainge_celtics_president.htm

Let the discussion begin.

[celticmaestro]

Awful news. And so begins the decline of KG.

(I'm not a pessimist, and we knew the decline would come sometime. Sadly, we didn't think it would be this soon and down to an injury. I need Big Ticket here to console me.)

[Brendan]

why can't that be fixed?

[winsomme]

i'm certainly no DR, but that seems better to me than a cartilage tear or a ligament tear...

would love to hear some medical perspective on this.

[Chris]

Awful news. And so begins the decline of KG.

(I'm not a pessimist, and we knew the decline would come sometime. Sadly, we didn't think it would be this soon and down to an injury. I need Big Ticket here to console me.)

How is this the decline of KG?  This is a pretty minor injury, that they will likely clean up in the offseason, and he will be as good as new next year. 

It does mean, he will likely be playing through pain all playoffs, but if he can play at 85-90%, and they get Powe OR Scal back, they are still a strong championship contender, providing their other guys continue to step up. 

[illantari]

Aren't bone spurs generally fairly easily detected by X Ray/MRI?  So they've probably known it's there and decided not to do anything about it, hoping rest + pain medication would do the trick.  Wonder if that was the right decision...

At any rate it's nothing career threatening unless it's started to wear down the tendon right?  Plenty of athletes, it seems, have these and it hasn't drastically affect their careers.  If we're worried that it's a sign his age is catching up to him, well, we knew he was old from the get go, that's why it's so important to win now.

[Finkelskyhook]

Spurs are very painful. Spurs are easy to clean up.

Long term, this is great news.

[TatteredOnMySleeve]

Awful news. And so begins the decline of KG.

(I'm not a pessimist, and we knew the decline would come sometime. Sadly, we didn't think it would be this soon and down to an injury. I need Big Ticket here to console me.)

How is this the decline of KG?  This is a pretty minor injury, that they will likely clean up in the offseason, and he will be as good as new next year. 

It does mean, he will likely be playing through pain all playoffs, but if he can play at 85-90%, and they get Powe OR Scal back, they are still a strong championship contender, providing their other guys continue to step up. 

How is it not a decline?
1. This is the worst injury of his career, and least productive season since his rookie year
2.He's been in the league for 14 seasons (all while barely missing a game) and is 32 years old, played in 1055 regular season games ( for example : Charles Barkley played in 1073, Patrick Ewing 1183, Hakeem Olajuwon 1238 Larry Bird 897  all of whom had big time dropoffs in the last 3-4 yrs of there careers before finally retiring).. he isnt going to get better anytime soon, He will and is in decline
3. He gets fatigued very quickly on the court and you have to be very cautious with his minutes.. His stats are declining, not only from his days in Minnesotta, but from last year
15/8/2 is decline when we're talking about a guy who put up 24/13/5 in his prime, injury or not

[slamtheking]

Awful news. And so begins the decline of KG.

(I'm not a pessimist, and we knew the decline would come sometime. Sadly, we didn't think it would be this soon and down to an injury. I need Big Ticket here to console me.)

How is this the decline of KG?  This is a pretty minor injury, that they will likely clean up in the offseason, and he will be as good as new next year. 

It does mean, he will likely be playing through pain all playoffs, but if he can play at 85-90%, and they get Powe OR Scal back, they are still a strong championship contender, providing their other guys continue to step up. 

How is it not a decline?
1. This is the worst injury of his career, and least productive season since his rookie year
2.He's been in the league for 14 seasons (all while barely missing a game) and is 32 years old, played in 1055 regular season games.. he isnt going to get better anytime soon
3. He gets fatigued very quickly on the court and you have to be very cautious with his minutes.. His stats are declining, not only from his days in Minnesotta, but from last year
15/8/2 is decline when we're talking about a guy who put up 24/13/5 in his prime, injury or not

You are aware that PP, KG and Ray all sacrificed their games (i.e. their stat lines) for the good of the team aren't you?  Volume (points, rebs, assts, etc) stats for these guys the past 2 years aren't relevant compared to their prior years.  Efficiency stats (FG%, TO rate, etc...) would be better indicators.

The only dropoff I noticed with KG's game this year is that he hasn't always been money on his 18-20 footers like he was last year.  No reason to start assuming this is the end.  Ray had a drop off last year too but has bounced back very nicely this year.

[TatteredOnMySleeve]

Awful news. And so begins the decline of KG.

(I'm not a pessimist, and we knew the decline would come sometime. Sadly, we didn't think it would be this soon and down to an injury. I need Big Ticket here to console me.)

How is this the decline of KG?  This is a pretty minor injury, that they will likely clean up in the offseason, and he will be as good as new next year. 

It does mean, he will likely be playing through pain all playoffs, but if he can play at 85-90%, and they get Powe OR Scal back, they are still a strong championship contender, providing their other guys continue to step up. 

How is it not a decline?
1. This is the worst injury of his career, and least productive season since his rookie year
2.He's been in the league for 14 seasons (all while barely missing a game) and is 32 years old, played in 1055 regular season games.. he isnt going to get better anytime soon
3. He gets fatigued very quickly on the court and you have to be very cautious with his minutes.. His stats are declining, not only from his days in Minnesotta, but from last year
15/8/2 is decline when we're talking about a guy who put up 24/13/5 in his prime, injury or not

You are aware that PP, KG and Ray all sacrificed their games (i.e. their stat lines) for the good of the team aren't you?  Volume (points, rebs, assts, etc) stats for these guys the past 2 years aren't relevant compared to their prior years.  Efficiency stats (FG%, TO rate, etc...) would be better indicators.

The only dropoff I noticed with KG's game this year is that he hasn't always been money on his 18-20 footers like he was last year.  No reason to start assuming this is the end.  Ray had a drop off last year too but has bounced back very nicely this year.

Ugh...Im well aware they sacrificed there games for the good of the team...I know that.
But, the bottom line is, he was better in 03-04..he was in his prime.  what I am telling you is his stats went down this year from LAST YEAR, hes missing more games, getting injured, and once again hes 32, been in the league 14 season and played in 1055 regular season games....its only natural to start decling, its happened to every single great player in NBA history especially when you start getting up there in that territory...sorry but go look someone up who played in that many games and seasons and stayed at the same level we expect KG at, they all dropped off significantly

[celticinorlando]

i think saying it is the decline of KG is a BIT DRASTIC...a lot of athletes get these...i am sure he will have to have it removed in the offseason and he is going to have to play through the pain in the playoffs

[Celtics17]

I think everyone is well aware of KG's age, that is probably not going to be as good as last year ( the rest of his career) and that this injury is not good. But, at least he will be able to play on it without it hurting his career in the future. Dealing with pain is possible with Cortisone shots and if it comes down to a game or two I bet he can go.

[Eeyore III]

A bone spur was among the assemblage of injuries that ended Larry Legend's career over a 2-3 year period.  This is like that moment in a movie where "ominous foreshadowing" music is suddenly heard.

[crownsy]

Awful news. And so begins the decline of KG.

(I'm not a pessimist, and we knew the decline would come sometime. Sadly, we didn't think it would be this soon and down to an injury. I need Big Ticket here to console me.)

thats a pretty minor injury man, essentialy its just excess calcium.

not a hard fix or a chronic injury. no one but marrow from the x-men has ever had chronic bone spurs (geek referance, wooo!)

[crownsy]

i think saying it is the decline of KG is a BIT DRASTIC...a lot of athletes get these...i am sure he will have to have it removed in the offseason and he is going to have to play through the pain in the playoffs

alot of non athletes get em to, just a build up of calcium...kinda like a kidney stone.