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

[Gomesfan]

FRAGILE!!! But the dude is tough!!!

[clover]

FRAGILE!!! But the dude is tough!!!

Fragile is a little guard like DWest who doesn't even need to be near another player to snap a bone.  With JO having banged in the middle and been named an All-Star for so many years, fragile isn't quite the word.

But I know what you mean.

[GreenFaith1819]

I'd still love for Jermaine O'Neal to come back, even after his surgery.

He's displayed toughness that is Celtic-Like, even with his assorted injuries.

That NY series would've been a little tougher if he would've sat out right away.

The man did a fine job of protecting the rim for us.

[OsirusCeltics]

I think the Celtics just need to trade for healthy players who can also produce

Injuries cost them the title for maybe 3 straight years. And I'm tired of hearing injury reports like once every week

[saltlover]

I think the Celtics just need to trade for healthy players who can also produce

Injuries cost them the title for maybe 3 straight years. And I'm tired of hearing injury reports like once every week

Good luck at that.  Injuries happen.  Sometimes they're predictable, sometimes they're not.  Rondo getting his elbow dislocated wasn't.  JO being injured was.  What are you going to do?

Basketball is a very physical sport.  If we want a team that plays hard defense and has bigs that bang around inside, you're going to have to deal with injury.  It's part of the territory.  And if we want them to take less jumpers and drive inside even more, that's still more injury to be had.  We could get a team of smaller players who like to take jumpshots a lot, and don't like to play much defense aside from trying to gamble for steals, but ask Don Nelson how many championships he's won.

[j804]

I like JO toughness but at this stage of his career as far as his knees it's tough, at times he isn't even able to go up for a rebound. I wish we could get some youth and athleticism at the center spot DeAndre would be just perfect but not getting my hopes up as that's probably impossible?!

[OsirusCeltics]

I think the Celtics just need to trade for healthy players who can also produce

Injuries cost them the title for maybe 3 straight years. And I'm tired of hearing injury reports like once every week

Good luck at that.  Injuries happen.  Sometimes they're predictable, sometimes they're not.  Rondo getting his elbow dislocated wasn't.  JO being injured was.  What are you going to do?

Basketball is a very physical sport.  If we want a team that plays hard defense and has bigs that bang around inside, you're going to have to deal with injury.  It's part of the territory.  And if we want them to take less jumpers and drive inside even more, that's still more injury to be had.  We could get a team of smaller players who like to take jumpshots a lot, and don't like to play much defense aside from trying to gamble for steals, but ask Don Nelson how many championships he's won.

I meant durability. Yes injuries happen, but its about how less injury prone you are
JO and Shaq are not durable. But I would keep Delonte since he's younger and can withstand his brittleness

[GreenEnvy]

I think the Celtics just need to trade for healthy players who can also produce

Injuries cost them the title for maybe 3 straight years. And I'm tired of hearing injury reports like once every week

I truly believe the past three seasons if we were healthy we could have won the championship. The main difference between our 2008 team and our 2009-11 teams was health.

That said, injuries are impossible to predict. Sure there are guys like Shaq who nobody was surprised about. But who could have seen Rondo breaking his arm? Or BBD missing several months because of a fight?

Guys like Marquis and JO had injury baggage attached to them when they came here, but their impact when healthy was worth the risk. They are good players who we got for good contracts. Delonte's injuries occur on the court, but he doesn't have a true chronic injury (unless you want to worry about his non-dominant wrist).

Look at the Big Three. KG never missed times in Minny. His first season with us he had an abdomen injury that caused him to miss more games in a month span than he missed in like the previous decade. Everyone was worried about Ray's ankles when we got him, and four years later, I don't recall hearing about them ever again.

And then there was Perk. Made it through the C's first 104 games relatively unscathed and on what could have been the last game of the NBA season, he blows out his knee.


Injuries are inevitable, and some guys are more prone to them, but it really can happen to anyone. We were just extremely unlucky this season.