A. Sherrod Blakely has a disappointing update on Amir Johnson in his blog today:
The setbacks just keep on coming for Amir Johnson. The $11M man will probably sit out the season opener at Miami due to a sore Achilles tendon. It doesn’t appear to be too serious, but serious enough to where you don’t want to risk him making it worse.
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It’s too soon to write this kid off as being injury-prone. But at the rate he seems to be coming back, getting hurt, coming back and then getting hurt again, it’s a label he might be tagged with very soon.
I’m curious, if this injury happened to a starter, would it cause him to miss time? Or can the team afford to be extra cautious with Amir simply because he was only expected to play 5-10 minutes (if that) in the first place? I don’t know the answer to that yet.
Also, regarding the “coming back, getting hurt, coming back and then getting hurt” cycle … we’re only halfway there, right? The sprained ankle was the first injury (and in fact, his first sprain ever), and the sore Achilles is his first setback, unless you count missing most of the preseason as a setback, but that was to be expected given the severity of the injury. This is just bad timing, not a reputation builder.
Update: Keith Langlois has an update on Pistons.com:
Amir Johnson sat out the last 45 minutes of Tuesday’s practice when he continued to feel pain in his left Achilles tendon, which he said is the result of the sprained ankle he suffered on Oct. 5 that cost him the first seven preseason games. Johnson said his ankle is fine and that the residual pain in his Achilles, according to Kander, is typical and nothing that should linger or risk further injury.
simply, im not worried about it. Let him heal up and he should be fine.
I’m not that worried, but these types of injuries can have a way of limiting a guy to 55 games a season and forcing him to retire at 26.
Okay, my heart rate has slowed enough for me to write now. I missed the word “opener” the first time I read the headline, so I thought he was done for the year for about three excrutiating minutes. Wow, when you think he’s out for the season, it’s really no big deal when you discover it’s only one game. I reccommend you try it sometime.
It’s Amir Watch 2007!
This is disappointing because I’m anxious to see what this kid can do. It’ll be refreshing to see some new faces in the rotation this year.
I’m so bummed to say it, but given what Flip has eluded to in the press (and his past bench “usage”) I have a huge feeling that we won’t see the kid much at all this season. I was so looking forward to it. I hope I’m super wrong and he turns into the neo Jermaine O’Neal. Given his lack of any serious competition besides D-League players and his unfortunate start this year, I fear he’ll sit more than anything.
Starting to think I wasn’t wrong about that ominous feeling that’s been building. I mean I’d REALLY prefer to be wrong on this one…
I think we all need to ignore Amir and then he’ll finally be healthy and play. We’ve built up so much hype around him that every little set-back is like a punch in the stomach. We should act all laissez-faire and be like, “Oh, that Amir guy? Whatever. If he plays, he plays. If not, oh well.” And then he’ll probably end up dominating. Reverse karma psychology!
First of all, it’s WAY too early for Blakely to be suggesting that Amir is injury-prone. Let’s not put the Jonathan Bender curse on him, shall we? Secondly, I have a feeling that Flip is one of the folks on the Detroit staff who doesn’t like Amir very much.
why do you say that, juggernaut?
I personally think Juggernaut is right. Can’t really explain why, it’s just a feeling I have; I’ve just never liked the way Flip talks about him.
Anyone got particular quotes besides vague feelings? Everyone is high on Amir; could it be Flip is being pragmatic?
I don’t have any particular quotes at hand, but he seems very tepid about Amir in general. I’ll try to see if I can find any relevant statements.
If Kander isnt BSing he could probably play if he had to but with the matchup against Miami and Nazr maybe being a better matchup, might as well let him rest.