Game Day: Suns (13-26) @ Pacers (21-16), Tues 1/12/16

[Mori Chu]

I confess that I watched SotU instead of this game. Obama gave a shoutout to computer science and Grace Hopper; that was nice. Oh, Suns lost? Meh.

[UglyTruth]

Booker just needs to be more aggressive. He passes up so many shots. He almost always has room to get that jumper off when he curls around that screen.

I don't think so. He is being careful with his shot selection, that is part of what makes so efficient. Its why I like him.

He needs to be more aggressive. He is wide open on those screens. There is no reason not to take it. I don't care if that means he shoots a little lower percentage, if it means he gets 3-4 more shots per game. We don't usually get a better shot after he passes that one up.

Yea him and Warren need to be combining to shoot at least 40 shots a game, if not, more.

This is a pointless season, at least let the youngsters play mins with high usage and make mistakes and learn from it.

[UglyTruth]

https://twitter.com/paulcoro/status/687077838185455617

Which is exactly why we could ignore Bledsoe's injury history.

Oops.

And don't forget Len either.

[Superbone]

Yeah, the training staff is responsible for every injury.

[Indy]

Yeah, the training staff is responsible for every injury.

No. But we ignore injury history of players because we think they are gods. It worked with Nash, mostly. So we keep pressing our luck.

[The Bobster]

You can prevent some injuries with preventative care (Chandler's hamstring issues might fall under this), but I don't think you cant prevent injuries like Bledsoe's or Len's with stretching, exercise or diet.

When your problems have been knee cartilage (such as Bledsoe's recent injuries) it could stem from trying to correct for another injury (such as his shin injury in 2013-14), but sometimes they just happen (like this year's).

As for Len, his previous broken hand and broken nose were just bad luck, and I don't recall the exact circumstances on how he sprained his hand against Cleveland in December. I don;t think the medical staff can be faulted for those though.

I'm more worried about Morris's brain injury.

[The Bobster]

Yeah, the training staff is responsible for every injury.

No. But we ignore injury history of players because we think they are gods. It worked with Nash, mostly. So we keep pressing our luck.

They got a lot of credit for keeping Nash and Hill healthy, but then again, how much of that was the training staff and how much of that was the player?

Certainly Hill got better treatment than he did in Orlando, and the Suns staff has the reputation for being one of the best in sports, but there isn't some magic that they can perform to keep a player from tearing up a knee (Bledsoe) or having a chronic back problem (Nash).

[Indy]

Yeah, the training staff is responsible for every injury.

No. But we ignore injury history of players because we think they are gods. It worked with Nash, mostly. So we keep pressing our luck.

They got a lot of credit for keeping Nash and Hill healthy, but then again, how much of that was the training staff and how much of that was the player?

Certainly Hill got better treatment than he did in Orlando, and the Suns staff has the reputation for being one of the best in sports, but there isn't some magic that they can perform to keep a player from tearing up a knee (Bledsoe) or having a chronic back problem (Nash).

Certainly not. But you would think they could be more involved in predicting health. Bledsoe has had like one healthy year in his career. But we signed him to a long term contract. I hope they were consulted and ignored, as opposed to not consulted or consulted and they said he was good.

[carey]

Yeah, the training staff is responsible for every injury.

No. But we ignore injury history of players because we think they are gods. It worked with Nash, mostly. So we keep pressing our luck.

They got a lot of credit for keeping Nash and Hill healthy, but then again, how much of that was the training staff and how much of that was the player?

Certainly Hill got better treatment than he did in Orlando, and the Suns staff has the reputation for being one of the best in sports, but there isn't some magic that they can perform to keep a player from tearing up a knee (Bledsoe) or having a chronic back problem (Nash).

Right. There's only so much they can do. Their approach relies on prevention. Keeping the muscles around trouble spots strong and keeping those areas flexible. Part of that is knowing where the trouble spots are in the first place. However, stuff like meniscus, ACL, and MCL tears can't totally be prevented. Also, the player has to take it upon themselves to stick to the program. I guarantee Nash and Hill did everything to the letter. I don't know about the other guys though. I hear Knight and Goodwin are both extremely hard workers. I heard Bledsoe was around a lot more this Summer too.

I'm concerned about Bledsoe, but I don't think it reflects poorly on the training staff. It just seems like he has bad knees. No one is going to trade for a player that misses half a season every other year. We still have him for 3 seasons after this one, which means we need to pencil him in for missing half of '17-'18.

[ShelC]

Agreed all around and was in the middle of typing nearly the exact same stuff. A lot of it is preventive and we've done an amazing job keeping guys on the court when a lot of players miss games with strained calves, hammies, back problems, etc. Not major injuries but ticky-tack ones that can knock a guy out 3-4 games and linger. There are stats for teams on games missed by the players and for a few years we had the least amount of games missed.

Structural issues, not much you can do with. If a knee is arthritic, it's arthritic. Our training staff pretty much nailed it with Amar'e, predicting he'd only last about 3 years before falling apart and he barely lasted that long.

Bledsoe's knees are problematic but he was also so young you maybe hoped he'd recover and get past those issues. So you could kind of sell yourself on extending him. Now that doesn't seem to be the case.

But we've legit worked miracles for guys like Nash, Hill, McDyess, Shaq. We revamped Hedo who was a mess when he got here. A lot of it probably came from Nash and his healthy lifestyle that rubbed off on guys like Hill, Raja, Duds...Boris maybe not so much

[OE32]

Bledsoe did play all of last year....

[wpmiller42]

Bledsoe did play all of last year....

And he did take a good hit on the knee, my guess is that had there been no contact, there wouldn't have been any problem. I suppose I'm optimistic on Bledsoe's health, less optimistic on his ability to become the point guard we need for this team.

[Mori Chu]

I think Teletovic is another under the radar victory for our training staff. He came here off a pretty major injury and was visibly out of shape and not 100% to start the season. The combination of his hard work and our training staff have him looking great at this point in the season.

[INFORMER]

My point wasn't to blame the training staff. My point was how silly it was at the time of retaining Bledsoe to think his injury history could be ignored because of the "superior" training staff. It's a top notch staff, but let's be reasonable.

Now here we are with a player that has played 6 seasons and experienced major knee injuries in 3 of them. That's just foolishness.

[iLLmatic]

To play devils advocate, it's not like he re-injured the right knee, he tore the meniscus in his left for the first time. Now he's damaged goods though, one meniscus was totally removed and the other has been repaired.

[Indy]

To play devils advocate, it's not like he re-injured the right knee, he tore the meniscus in his left for the first time. Now he's damaged goods though, one meniscus was totally removed and the other has been repaired.

Bad genes aren't usually selective enough to only affect one side.

[Ring_Wanted]

Well, the meniscus stuff should be over soon. At worst, one more surgery to completely remove the left one if stitching proves insufficient. At least he is not a spider.

[Indy]

Well, the meniscus stuff should be over soon. At worst, one more surgery to completely remove the left one if stitching proves insufficient. At least he is not a spider.

Ha!

[The Bobster]

I think Teletovic is another under the radar victory for our training staff. He came here off a pretty major injury and was visibly out of shape and not 100% to start the season. The combination of his hard work and our training staff have him looking great at this point in the season.

Actually he was out with a pulmonary embolism last year, not an injury.