Drummond out at least a month with stress fracture in his back!
Detroit will no doubt not want to rush him back, at worse they get a better lottery pick with him out. Hopefully he can get back for the last month of the season and maybe get minutes built up gradually.
IMB Sharpe makes a very valid point, if he could work on his free throws and become a real threat from the line the teams would be much more reluctant to foul him and it gives his game another useful dimension.
Drummond won't be shooting free-throws or doing anything else for a few weeks. The most he'll probably do is light exercises in a pool.
He needs to be extremely patient with this injury so the bone heals and the injury doesn't linger. That last thing he wants is for this to turn into a fracture. Hopefully, they're able to strengthen his muscles in that area and he doesn't lose any explosiveness or just reaction speed (like Dwight Howard has lost).
The back is nothing to play with.
The more I think about it the more I think they should shut him down for the season. I don't know exactly what part of his back really is damaged but injuries like that are always serious and they should keep him off the floor for the remainder of the season.
He showed great progress but this team is not playing for anything for the remainder of the season. Now where they just aquired Calderon I was excited to see where they can go, maybe for the last playoff spot.
They have a ton of cap space this summer with Calderon and Maggette off the books and should go for someone like milsapp or even Iggy imo.
If they suck from now on what I belive, they could hold a top 5 to 10 pick this year and could have a very good team next year.
Really sucks that Drummond is out now but the future looks VERY bright. If Knight finds a way to be effective (maybe as as a 6th man or sg), they have great core to build around even if CV and Stuckey are still on the roster in October!
Shut him down for the rest of the season just because of a stress fracture? I don't know about that lol. That's extreme. He'll need 6-8 weeks. The main thing is letting the stress fracture heal with rest and then it's key to strengthen the muscles around the back, core, etc.
Back fractures usually are at the mid or lower part of the back.
He'll be fine. He's about to spend the next several weeks resting, getting massages, etc.
If we're talking about 6-8 weeks we're talking about late march to early april. Detroit closes out the season on the 17th of april vs the Nets.
This is a 2-4 weeks span to play again this season and if I'm the Pistons I would rush him to come back early cause there is just no reason to do this. If he can move and exercise well in a few weeks he can train with the team or work on postmoves, conditioning AND free throws.
Yea, I'm with you. After I made the post, I realized it's already Feb 8th. It's not crazy to suggest sitting him out the remainder of the season.
On the other hand though, if he's 100% healthy and cleared by doctors, why not let him play? He needs that on court experience.
This really is bad news. Just because I was really enjoyin his progress. But shut him down for the season like somone already stated. he needs to just push it on his rehab and get his core as strong as possible, and trade this years top 10 pick for tyreke Evans and let Brandon Knight play off ball, then somehow get lucky and have iggy get signed there so they will have a starting 5 next year of
Brandon Knight
Tyreke Evans
Iggy
Greg Manroe
Andre Drummond
Bench
Kyle Singler
Kim English
Jason Maxiel
2nd round pick.
Fantasy obviously. But I like that team. Maybe not the iggy signing and wait for a better opportunity with a player more suited for them.
Here are some more details:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2013/02/08/andre-drummo...
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The Detroit Pistons received a severe blow when Andre Drummond's MRI revealed a stress fracture of the fifth lumbar vertebra in his back.
He is expected to be out four to six weeks and will wear a special custom brace. He will be re-evaluated on a regular basis, team doctor Ben Paolucci said.
Paolucci said Drummond might also have a minor injury on the other side of his back, as seen in Thursday's MRI. Surgery won't be required.
"We found the fracture yesterday (Thursday),'' Paolucci said. "He should get better and heal, and he should have no residuals. He's not going to have anything lasting. It's not an uncommon injury. He doesn't have a disc (problem). He's got some discomfort now, so he as a custom brace. We've already fitted it for him. Once he gets where he's a systematic and he doesn't have any pain we'll be able to start some exercising program.''
Doesn't sound too bad but also not very good. Good thing is he seems to be able to do some kind of workouts and rehab and coaches say they expect full recovery but what else shoud they say?
I really hope he will be fine, I love watching him playing defense, he's so mobile and quick on his feet and catching all the lobs is very fun to watch.
IF they let the stress fracture heal properly and he strengthens the muscles/ligaments in his back and strengthens his core, I see no reason why this would happen again. I mean, unless he had a serious hard fall or something. That could happen to any player though.
Iggy would be a great fit in Detroit but he has a big player option and I feel he'd likely stay with Denver and his salary demands are likely to be high. I think that Detroit need to decide where they want to use Knight long term and target their free agent targets around this. Also whoever they draft will impact on likely FA moves.
With Drummond I'd play it carefully if he does get fit by the last few weeks maybe give him a few run outs but the view must be long term.
Very ugly news from Detroit right before the All Star Break!
Hopefully he will come back 100 %. I loved the way he played so far!
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--pistons-center-andre-drummond-to-miss-...