JO was playing with a broken wrist since Game 1 of the Knicks series

[jdpapa3]

Fair enough; point stands, though, he was injured and barely able to contribute.

...on offense.

[GreenEnvy]

Wow.

I admire this team more and more.

They were so beat up, it's sad.

And yet they fought to the bitter end.

Let's hope they come back healthy and hungry, as I'm sure they will.

I wish they would continue The Association with this group next year, but I think it's like a 10,000,000% chance it will be the Heat next year.

[Who]

This season, O’Neal missed 58 games with left knee and left wrist injuries. He’s confident he’ll return to full health over the summer, but isn’t sure he’s ready for the grind of another season.

“Your body tends to tell you what time it is,” O’Neal said. “I missed so much of this year, it would be inappropriate for me to even make a decision. Not when it’s an emotional decision. I’m going to take a couple days off and stay on the program with our strength-and-conditioning guy and stick around Boston for another month and then gauge it after the month is over and see where the collective bargaining agreement is going.”

Link

[dasani]

Wow.

I admire this team more and more.

They were so beat up, it's sad.

And yet they fought to the bitter end.

Let's hope they come back healthy and hungry, as I'm sure they will.

I wish they would continue The Association with this group next year, but I think it's like a 10,000,000% chance it will be the Heat next year.

Hopefully it will be the Thunder like they originally meant to but didn't because the Thunder organization didn't want the filming to take place. I sure ain't interested in seeing the overhyped Heat, hopefully most don't want to either. Most don't remember the Lakers 1 or 2 episode Association series.

[Finkelskyhook]

This season, O’Neal missed 58 games with left knee and left wrist injuries. He’s confident he’ll return to full health over the summer, but isn’t sure he’s ready for the grind of another season.

“Your body tends to tell you what time it is,” O’Neal said. “I missed so much of this year, it would be inappropriate for me to even make a decision. Not when it’s an emotional decision. I’m going to take a couple days off and stay on the program with our strength-and-conditioning guy and stick around Boston for another month and then gauge it after the month is over and see where the collective bargaining agreement is going.”

Link

Boy that's comforting....Maybe if the CBA isn't favorable he'll just tank next season like the last, cash those checks,  and retire.

[Jon]

I'd love to see JO come back.  If there's some way we could nab someone like Dalembert, JO would be a perfect backup at 15-20 mpg. 

Furthermore, I think we could see him actually play better a full year removed from these knee issues.  He's only 32. 

[KindBass]

I remember the play.  He did it taking a charge.  And now, broken wrist story time!  I once broke my wrist when I was 12, playing soccer.  I thought I had just jammed it or sprained it or something, but after a week it still hurt so my parents took for x-rays and my radius bone was snapped right through.  I had also never broken a bone before, but it really didn't hurt THAT bad.  Probably not half as bad as Rondo's elbow feels.  I was still doing normal 12 year old things, like going swimming and playing kickball and, yes, basketball. 

So I'm not surprised that he was able to play with it.  I am surprised that he was still able to play as well as he did, which was much better than he played in the playoffs last year for Miami when he was relatively healthy.

[Kuberski1]

To win a ring...you have to be good, AND lucky.  We didn't have enough of the latter this year, and have now gone home.  We had more injuries than normal in our rotation players, even adjusted for age.  The clincher was when Marquis when down for the year - it's fairly safe to say that injury precipitated the OKC trade, which regardless of how you feel about it, meant the loss of interior size/bulk that Perk brought.  Add to that was Shaq being unable to come back to early season form, and then this news about JO.

In 2008, we basically had the full squad, and of course Bynum was out (we probably would have won any way, but his absence made it easier...).  Since then, we've had an absent KG, followed by a slow KG/no Perk in Game 7.  This is not true just for us, but all teams...you just have to have all your key guys at or close to 100% to have a shot; this year we didn't.  Put into real time terms, if we had had the Shaq of November, along with a healthy JO, I think we would have beaten the Heat, even if they had Haslem.....the games were that close.  Or, if Marquis had been OK, then we would have likely settled for a lesser back-up wing at buy-out time, kept Perk...and under that scenario probably would have taken the Heat.

I don't mean to make excuses....just to say Lady Luck matters...and we didn't have enough of that this year.

[moiso]

I'd love to see JO come back.  If there's some way we could nab someone like Dalembert, JO would be a perfect backup at 15-20 mpg. 

Furthermore, I think we could see him actually play better a full year removed from these knee issues.  He's only 32. 

But Jermaine is never going to be "removed" from that knee issue.  It might temporarily improve, but it's not going away permanently.

[Bahku]

I'd love to see JO come back.  If there's some way we could nab someone like Dalembert, JO would be a perfect backup at 15-20 mpg.  

Furthermore, I think we could see him actually play better a full year removed from these knee issues.  He's only 32.  

But Jermaine is never going to be "removed" from that knee issue.  It might temporarily improve, but it's not going away permanently.

Yup, you're right, (TP), it's a chronic problem, and as with Shaq, when you take on JO, you take on his injuries ... it's a roll of the dice that we just don't need, (as much as I like him). That space can be filled much more productively with some younger and more athletic legs.

[screwedupmaniac]

Our supporting cast this season (West, both O'Neals, Daniels, etc.) reminded me of "A Christmas Story"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJSmmbmJCLw

When Danny signed all these guys, he must have said to himself: "Frageelee...it must be Italian"

[ACF]

You could probably say "Take that, haterz" 'cept you can't say that 

Way to go, JO.

[moiso]

I'd love to see JO come back.  If there's some way we could nab someone like Dalembert, JO would be a perfect backup at 15-20 mpg.  

Furthermore, I think we could see him actually play better a full year removed from these knee issues.  He's only 32.  

But Jermaine is never going to be "removed" from that knee issue.  It might temporarily improve, but it's not going away permanently.

Yup, you're right, (TP), it's a chronic problem, and as with Shaq, when you take on JO, you take on his injuries ... it's a roll of the dice that we just don't need, (as much as I like him). That space can be filled much more productively with some younger and more athletic legs.

Yep.  TP back at you.  Boy, last offseason seamed perfect at the time but I don't want to go through that again.  I was hoping that between Perk and the Oneals we would have the best center depth in the league.  We ended up with the worst!

It's pretty ridiculous how little we got from the Oneals and West overall.  I was hoping at least one or two of them would make it through most of the season.

[Bahku]

I'd love to see JO come back.  If there's some way we could nab someone like Dalembert, JO would be a perfect backup at 15-20 mpg. 

Furthermore, I think we could see him actually play better a full year removed from these knee issues.  He's only 32. 

But Jermaine is never going to be "removed" from that knee issue.  It might temporarily improve, but it's not going away permanently.

Yup, you're right, (TP), it's a chronic problem, and as with Shaq, when you take on JO, you take on his injuries ... it's a roll of the dice that we just don't need, (as much as I like him). That space can be filled much more productively with some younger and more athletic legs.

Yep.  TP back at you.  Boy, last offseason seamed perfect at the time but I don't want to go through that again.  I was hoping that between Perk and the Oneals we would have the best center depth in the league.  We ended up with the worst!

It's pretty ridiculous how little we got from the Oneals and West overall.  I was hoping at least one or two of them would make it through most of the season.

Yeah, if they had both been healthy, I think it's safe to say we would have gone all the way, but they gave us all they had and played like warriors, so I gotta give them the props. We rolled the dice, but it just didn't come up seven this year.

[Bahku]

Our supporting cast this season (West, both O'Neals, Daniels, etc.) reminded me of "A Christmas Story"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJSmmbmJCLw

When Danny signed all these guys, he must have said to himself: "Frageelee...it must be Italian"

Gotta TP the "A Christams Story" mention ... one of my favorite movies of all time!