Holdahl: Dame Surgery & Good Tidbits

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Blazer Freak

Blazer Freak

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Casey just put out a good article with lots of great insight on the injury and the future...some of the best parts below. But if what is in here is true, Ant and Nas don't sound like they are going anywhere if it's up to Dame:

https://www.nba.com/blazers/forward...ain-lillard-swallows-his-pride-play-long-game

Thursday morning, the team announced that Lillard underwent a procedure, conducted by Dr. William C. Meyers at The Vincera Institute in Philadelphia, to “repair a core injury causing chronic abdominal pain.” More specifically, the surgery addresses the core injury by decreasing the imbalance between the abs and groin muscles while stabilizing both sides of the pubic joint. He will be re-evaluated in six weeks.

“It’s a pretty short procedure,” said Lillard, who also noted players such as Jrue Holiday and Kyle Lowry have had similar procedures, also conducted by doctors at Vincera. “Repair the left side and the right side just because the images show that I’ve had issues on both sides. The doctor that I’m actually going to was like ‘Man, you’re having a great season based on what I’m looking at.’ He literally said that to me.

“They’ll repair both sides, take an hour to do both sides, won’t be a long surgery at all, said it’s not a tough surgery to come back from. He said I’ll be walking around right after surgery. He said it will be uncomfortable but four or five days I should be back moving around, kind of walking around the court, shooting and stuff like that. Not no major activities but he said it’s one of those things where it’s better to get back to activity quick, not full throttle, but just start some activity.”
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Along with knowing that having surgery now will put him in position to be completely healthy in time for the 2022-23 season, seeing the opportunities his younger teammates are getting in his absence has helped Lillard endure the disappointment of not being able to play. He’d rather perform at the level that he and the rest of Rip City have become accustomed to, but seeing his young wards find success is the next best thing.

“Ant is like my protege, he’s been under my wing,” said Lillard of Simons, who has been one of the best players in the NBA since moving into the starting lineup in Lillard’s stead. “We train together in the summer, I’m always talking to him, I’m always in his ear, we always texting and stuff like that because I’ve always believed in him to the highest power. It’s been four years now of that so to see him playing well and to start to put it together, for one, I love to see that for him and two, I love that for our team, just the development and growth of him and Nas is like, I’m looking at it like a chess game now. These are two young, super talented, super athletic guys that will now get the opportunity to grow and to get more confidence, get more comfortable doing things where they can really help the team be at that level.”

So in a way, addressing the injury now rather than in the offseason serves multiple purposes. First and foremost, the Trail Blazers are a much better team with a much higher ceiling with a healthy Lillard, so finding a more permanent solution puts Portland on a much more stable path going forward. But by stepping away now, Lillard also gives his teammates an opportunity to make their own way, giving them and the team a better chance of reaching their aspirations when Lillard is able to return to full strength.
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“It was a situation where it’s been a tough season, I’m not healthy,” said Lillard. “What is the return on me beating myself up for another year? And then end of the year, what is that going to look like? And now I’ve got to the end of the season and we’re trying to do this at the end of the season and now I’ve got to go through the rehab, the recovery, get in shape, train and all that stuff and then the season is here again and there’s not really been a physical or mental break. So why not take that opportunity now, just swallow my pride and play the long game? Maybe add two years to my career instead of taking two off.”
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I have no doubt Cronin or whoever sold him on sitting out and getting right. He’s too tough for his own good and been playing through this for years, I can’t imagine a lightbulb just went off now. It’s good that he sees the bigger picture, no chance he’s elsewhere until after next season, at the earliest. I think he’s gonna end up retiring in Portland though, especially if he’s bought into the idea of a younger team being built around him ala the Suns/Paul
 
Eh. I guess I'll be fine keeping ant.

I concede.
 
Great article....really good news for Dame and the team. Now we have a player, coach development season to prepare for next year and hopefully Joe can build a contender shuffling the deck!
 
RR7 said:
care to summarize? Without tik tok, it just sends me to the main home page or whatever
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My bad. I'm not really sure how that app works myself.

Two main points:
  1. Some trainer suspects his ab injury is due to all the boxing workouts Dame does, which he felt are not of benefit to Dame anyway
  2. Realistic recovery time from the surgery is 3 months, which would be right when the regular season ends.
 
Tince said:
My bad. I'm not really sure how that app works myself.

Two main points:
  1. Some trainer suspects his ab injury is due to all the boxing workouts Dame does, which he felt are not of benefit to Dame anyway
  2. Realistic recovery time from the surgery is 3 months, which would be right when the regular season ends.
Click to expand...
That’s a relief actually. Punt the season, prepare for next year. The bad start to the season is now a good thing.
 
Add to blazer what ifs. . What if Dame had core surgery 4 years ago or whenever he first started feeling pain.

When he said he'd been playing hurt all these years, i was skeptical coz he was still great until last year. . Then, survery and ample rest and he's even better
 
inconceivable said:
Add to blazer what ifs. . What if Dame had core surgery 4 years ago or whenever he first started feeling pain.

When he said he'd been playing hurt all these years, i was skeptical coz he was still great until last year. . Then, survery and ample rest and he's even better
Click to expand...

If only the Warriors had asked the NBA to investigate this back then.
 
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