Even before Perry Jones impressed in his Summer League debut with 16 points and eight rebounds, it was fairly universal: The Thunder got the steal of the draft.
A lottery talent with huge ability that slipped all the way down to No. 28. What good fortune!
It left everyone asking how, why and what. How did OKC land Jones? Why did he fall? What were other teams thinking passing on him?
The reason everyone cited: Because he was medically red flagged before the draft due to a “meniscus issue.” What that entails or how that affects him is unknown. But whatever it was, the Thunder felt good enough about it to draft Jones anyway. And bear in mind, this is a pretty fickle organization when it comes to player health. The Thunder rescinded a one-sided trade for Tyson Chandler because of a big toe.
So what’s the big deal with Jones’ knees? They looked pretty alright in his first game Monday and for two years at Baylor? Would 24 teams really dare pass on him just because of that? Well, consider this from Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated:
NBA scout told me today his team’s docs believe Perry Jones’s knees will only hold up for 3-4 years in the league. Explains why he dropped.
Well then. That explains things a bit. But then again, a rookie contract lasts only four seasons, so if this is really the case, the Thunder will at least get a good amount of health from Jones.
Also, people are often wrong. Doctors don’t always nail this stuff. Again, Chandler. Or DeJuan Blair. But for everyone Blair, there’s a Brandon Roy. Except when you’re the Thunder picking 28th with an almost entirely full roster, taking a chance on a guy that might have his career shortened isn’t unwise.
If Jones only has three or four good years in him, that would be a shame. He’s an intriguing talent in an equally intriguing situation in OKC. He’s got a heap of talent and the potential to make a whole lot of NBA executives feel silly a couple years down the road. Or maybe even get a few medical examiners fired.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Name for me any other players who played 30+ minutes every game for 2 years in college and then had their knees blow out in 3-4 years. There are probably some (Oden played like 26 minutes per game for one year) but who are they? Jones' knee might last longer playing as a reserve role player instead of a big minute lead star. Pro trainers I assume are better than mid-level college trainers.
How many pros eventually have knee work done? 20-30%?
My experience is that doctors almost always assume the worst for liability reasons.
I guess Roy lasted 5 years as a penetrating SG
Jones might try to be a spot up forward to increase his durability. I am not in favor of that from a team perspective given the low quality of his shot right now. He should give it his best shot and not be shy. And save his money.
@Crow his knee was done in college though and could have been prevented. http://zigsports.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/greg-oden-brandon-roy-what-what-happened/
@Lost Ones @Crow Wow. Thanks for that link Lost. Really interesting reading. Can the Thunder get this guy on their medical staff? Please? I'd promise to stop posting about Perry Jones' knees if this guy gave him a clean bill of health.
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/07/tuesday-bolts-7-10-12/
@diddoff was starting to wonder if royce is alright.
just got really confused to why Millsap was playing summer league for utah...it's paul millsaps brother lol
@OBoymuzik He played for us last year I think. Pretty good, if I recall.
@cemitten alec burks is killing it right now
@OBoymuzik He;s got a lot of potential. I really liked him. Glad to see it working out a bit for him.
this will probably be a bolt but whatever lol
"Andrey Vorontsevich: I don’t know why it was so blown out of proportion by the media. I did travel to Oklahoma, but didn’t do any workouts there. The Thunder were interested in me before, and they still are. We’ve met with the club representatives and talked. But I never said it anywhere that I was leaving for the States. What I know right now is I am still under contract with CSKA for two years. If I had a real offer from an NBA club, then we would at least have something to talk about. But right now my main goal is to finish the rehab completely and to get ready for the start of next season."
where are the bolts you guys are boring me this morning...
I wonder if he can go to Germany and get the magic knee-feel better shot Kobe got.
@Thunder Tim It repairs damage, so he probably will need it, but not right now.
royce is famous for getting the screenshot of Hardens instagram accident
http://www.complex.com/sports/2012/07/james-harden-accidentally-posted-on-instagram-that-he-was-traded-to-the-hornets
@OBoymuzik Maybe he is now too famous for posting the Bolts?
@diddoff or maybe its an all royce young bolts...just the same article over and over giving him credit on 200 sites
*Checks comments - none in the past 30 minutes
*Checks for a new article, Daily Bolts perhaps? None.
*Check outside to see if the sun is still shining and the world is still turning. Yes.
What the...
@Jax Raging Bile Duct It is not just here, my other non basketball sites nobody is posting.
@f5alcon @Jax Raging Bile Duct Oddly enough, the site i frequent every day that has almost no action is pretty busy todya.
@cemitten @f5alcon Someone please let me know when everything returns to normal (hopefully by tomorrow). I don't want to worry about getting struck by lightening, seeing an umpa loompa or agreeing with Lost Ones for more than 24 hours.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct I've been going back to the front page frequently as well. Everyone just.... stopped.
@cemitten I know! Makes me wonder what is everyone doing? What am I missing out on?
@bmuelle21 @Tronchaser @cemitten @OBoymuzik I think smitten - as in; he's smitten with the like button.
@Tronchaser @cemitten @OBoymuzik @Jax Raging Bile Duct idk but i always think of cement
@cemitten @OBoymuzik @Jax Raging Bile Duct Everytime I see cemittens name I think "Mittens" in my head. Is it just me?
@Jax Raging Bile Duct one team doctor started a rumor that i wasn't going to ever be taller than 5 ft 8....some teams got worried that i wouldn't be a viable option at the SF position
@OBoymuzik I knew our attitude problems would eventually come back to haunt us!
@OBoymuzik @Jax Raging Bile Duct Well damn, now I feel obligated.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct joseppi is probably hanging out on Landthieves. Nerd.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct @cemitten presti called some of the top DTers for a try out today... @cemitten had to stay here and like comments and me and you obviously weren't thunder material
Daily Bolts Prediction....This is the blurb Royce is going to post this morning from Darnell's Game 1 Recap:
"I know a lot of fans bag on Hayward. But after watching him in this setting, I really see what he brings. He gives 100 percent every second he’s on the floor. He hustles. He’s strong. He’s tough. He leads. He communicates. Throughout the game, he was encouraging his teammates, saying whatever he could to get them to get a stop, a rebound, anything positive. I would bet that every last Thunder player loves playing with Lazar for those reasons."
@Barry Amenema If only all that transferred into not being a Kobe-esque shot chucker.
@cemitten Well, like Darnell said, "If he can start knocking down more shots, he does have some value." (In other news....if a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass a-hoppin'.)
Perry would've been a top 5 pick in 2011 Draft. Crazy
Of course, if he had gone into the 2011 draft and been a top 5 pick, Portland would have gotten him...and his knees would have immediately given out.
With the current roster, can he get enough playing time to contribute during this supposed 4 year window?
@Shake Down the Thunder Well, either Serge and Harden are going to sign to reasonable contracts, in which case who cares, or one of the two is gone, in which case, he'll probably have to.
Even if we only get 4 years out of him, he still becomes a millionaire, and we get a good player for the 28th pick, we are in win now mode, it isnt like what happens 5 years from now matters, we will have bigger problems with keeping our UFAs
Seriously I want him to start living in Germany during the summer
Cole planted this PJ3 rumor to deflect his $#@* play in yesterday's game.
Had this story not been written we would still be in yesterday's topic of Game 1 summer league, not good for Cole.
I'll gladly donate my knees if it's that big of an issue.
SEND HIM TO GERMANY!
How do they determine that a guy's knee will only last 4 years? They didn't flag Roy or Oden coming out of college from what I remember. Perry Jones is not like Blair. He has his ACL's so that comparison is dumb. Just curious, if there are any doctors that read the board what makes a knee look like it's only going to last 4 years. Are there thick ACL's and thin ACL's? What makes an ACL life look like it's going to last 4 years instead of 3 or 5? I'm just not sure some of these things can be a legit prognosis just looking at an MRI. I just don't know that you can tell how flexible or resilient a tendon or muscle is just by looking at it. Maybe I'm wrong. But like I said, neither Roy or Oden was flagged coming out of college from what I remember. I'm not sure they have any way of telling how long something is going to last.
@okcjim I'm only a med student, there are people who are more qualified to comment here.
1. It's not about his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). It's about one or both of the menisci in his knee. Wiki it. It consits of cartilage and reduces errosion between the femur and the tibia. It's a very important part of the knee joint.
2. Cartilage regenerates very very very slowly if at all. By looking at it with different imaging you can say how far it degenerated already.
Degeneration of the meniscus leads to arthritis in the knee thus limiting the range of motion.
Again google it. The internet knows more than I do :D
@okcjim I don't know if there was a "flag" for Roy and Oden, but there were concerns prior to the draft. Roy fell due to worries about his knees, and doctors warning that Oden's left (right?) leg was an inch longer than the other, so that would lead to stress fractures in the foot and a higher likelihood of join injuries.
Turns out they were both right. And it's still too soon for Dejuan Blair. He's just entering his 4th season, which is apparently when the knee problems start popping up for guys with past history.
@alvarex Concerns about Oden weren't for him not not be the first pick in the draft and Roy went 6th overall so there wasn't enough concern about his knee to have him drop very far (certainly not to #28). I don't think either of their draft status was affected by injury concerns. Also how many guys have been flagged that never had any problems?
@okcjim If I were to guess, they probably have a very good idea of the average amount of strain a regular knee goes through versus the amount of strain an NBA knee goes through. You only have a certain amount of tissue in a knee, and while they can recraft them, it usually takes something drastic - like transplanting part of an achilles tendon. As such, if he's taking more wear than they expect at that point, and given what the average strain is, they can do predictions.
Now, that said, those are all from a non-Medical person looking in. A physical therapist or orthopedic specialist would know better.
Chris Palmer: Kobe: "This is my 17th summer. I can't think of any NBA player who's done it at this high level for this long." 9 hours ago
Read more: http://hoopshype.com/twitter/media.html#ixzz20E3RyX8t
and...
Bruce Arthur: Kareem in his 16th year: .599 FG, 22.0 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 3.2 apg, 2.1 bpg. The next year: .564, 23.4, 6.1, 3.5, 1.6. At age 38z 8 hours ago Read more: http://hoopshype.com/twitter/media.html#ixzz20E3a9JnP
God I cant stand Kobe. What a braggart. When he was talking about the verbal jousting with KD and Harden, he kept emphasizing that "They couldnt sit at my lunch table." By the looks of it it toatally appeared that they were getting the best of him. KD and Harden were basically laughing at "The Black Mamba" (stupid name, what does it even mean?).
@K-Dagger Plainview I've heard on ESPN that he calls for the ball by making a snake-like sound. Snake sound x brown skin = Black mamba?
@K-Dagger Plainview I'm going to refer you to Kill Bill, volume 2 on that one.
@K-Dagger Plainview The whole point being, he had a rep there for taking those same big shots that Jordan did - the back-breakers, the sure-killers.
@ou_sas Im not on board. Ive leared to respect Kobes game over time, and hes a very great player, but hes no where near Jordan and by the end Durant shoudl surpass him. If durant shot as much as Kobe hed be averaging 35+ pts a game.
@K-Dagger Plainview The salient quote, from Elle Driver: "In Africa, the saying goes 'In the bush, an elephant can kill you, a leopard can kill you, and a black mamba can kill you. But only with the mamba is death sure.' Hence its handle, 'Death Incarnate.'" Pretty cool, huh?"
@ou_sas oddly, never seen it
@K-Dagger Plainview not to mention you know, the first couple seasons where Kobe didn't do anything at a high level and Kareem was already the man his rookie year