Surgery Will Cost Ginobili Months, Not Weeks

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_ar...ths_not_weeks/

Spurs star Manu Ginobili will have surgery next week on his left ankle and heel to repair ligament damage that has hampered his game for many months.

Though Ginobili on Thursday told an Argentine newspaper he expected to return to action six to eight weeks after the operation, sources familiar with the procedure say it is much more likely he will be out for two to three months. That makes it unlikely he can be ready for action when the Spurs open the regular season Oct. 29 in a game at the AT&T Center against the Phoenix Suns.

Ginobili, the reigning NBA Sixth Man Award winner, is almost certain to miss all of the team's training camp and preseason. Camp begins Oct. 1, with the first preseason game scheduled for Oct. 9, against the Rockets, in Houston.

The Spurs medical staff has been in consultation for several days with other sports medicine experts to determine when and where the arthroscopic procedure will be done, but no decision has been announced.

The Spurs describe Ginobili's injury as a posterior impingement of the left ankle. He most recently injured the joint while playing for Argentina in the Olympic basketball tournament in Beijing, where he limped to the sidelines early in Argentina's semifinal game against the United States on Aug. 19.

He did not play again in the tournament, missing Argentina's bronze medal-clinching victory over Lithuania.

Ginobili, who returned from Beijing late Monday night, had another MRI exam taken of the injured foot and ankle. Results of that test, he told Argentine newspaper La Nacion, indicated the need for surgery.

“They're going to operate on me,” Ginobili told La Nacion. “It is the same as it was two months ago when they did the first (MRI) exam. It's not worse, which is important. Now, the thing is, it's not better, either, and it seems the only way to repair it completely is arthroscopic surgery.”

The Spurs issued a media release Friday afternoon confirming Ginobili will have the surgery next week.

Ginobili has been bothered by varying degrees of soreness in his left ankle and heel for several seasons. He jammed the joint during the Spurs' first-round series against Phoenix in April and was hampered through the remainder of the playoffs.

His production dropped off dramatically in the Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. He averaged only 12.6 points after averaging 20.1 points in the first two playoff rounds, against Phoenix and New Orleans.

After the Spurs were eliminated, Ginobili had an MRI exam that showed significant swelling in the heel and ankle joint. He embarked on a rest and rehabilitation program, but Spurs coach Gregg Popovich urged him to consider forgoing the Olympic competition. Popovich reported that the MRI results showed a ligament in Ginobili's heel was four to five times its normal size.

His left foot was placed in a plastic walking boot for three weeks after the MRI, and Ginobili returned to Argentina and reported to the national team after his rehabilitation had reduced the swelling.

The top player on the Argentine team, Ginobili found himself under additional pressure to help his country defend the gold medal it won at the 2004 Olympics. To top it off, he was chosen to carry his nation's flag in the opening ceremonies in Beijing.

Ginobili had his most productive season for the Spurs in 2007-08 after opting not to play for Argentina in the Tournament of Americas competition, which earned Argentina a berth in the Beijing Games. He averaged career-highs of 19.5 points and 31.0 minutes per game. He appeared in 74 of 82 regular season games and all 17 playoff games, in which he averaged 17.8 points.

good

It would be far preferable for him to miss as much time as he needed to heal and rehab now, than to push anything and have problems down the line. If they are able to stabilize his ankles with this surgery, it will give him a longer career...and that is good for both his sake and all of his fans.

Title should be "Surgery Will Cost Ginobili and Spurs Months, Not Weeks"

Time enough for Mason to pick it up with us... he has a golden opportunity to show what he is about...

Damnnn.. He will be back with a brand new game..

Mason was invisible for the Wizards, not an indication that that he will impact the Spurs at all.

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Originally Posted by boutons_

Mason was invisible for the Wizards, not an indication that that he will impact the Spurs at all.

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Fail.

Roger Mason - 9 starts

37 mpg
17.4 ppg
3.4 apg
3.0 rpg
52.6% FG
43.1% 3PT
90.1% FT

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Originally Posted by boutons_

Mason was invisible for the Wizards, not an indication that that he will impact the Spurs at all.

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Not exactly invisible. He averaged 8 ppg off the bench, and 17 ppg when he had a chance to start (9 games). Between Mason, Finley and Udoka, the Spurs should be okay til Manu returns. Parker will probably need to average a little more too.

Three months puts his return one month into the season. I can live with that.

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Though Ginobili on Thursday told an Argentine newspaper he expected to return to action six to eight weeks after the operation, sources familiar with the procedure say it is much more likely he will be out for two to three months.

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From what I understood from the translations, it didn't look like Manu said he'd be back in 6-to-8 weeks. He said that will be when he can start putting pressure on the ankle again.

Somewhere between Dec. 1 and Jan. 1 is when I'd expect him back. Jan. 1 is four months away so hopefully that is enough time. However, I do find it worrisome that the Spurs are saying they won't give a timetable until after surgery. That is usually an indication that the arthroscopic procedure is at least partly exploratory.

Looking at the schedule, a December 20th return makes sense.

Sat 20 vs Toronto
Mon 22 vs Sacramento
Tue 23 vs Minnesota
Thu 25 @ Phoenix
Sat 27 vs Memphis
Tue 30 vs Milwaukee

That's a relatively easy stretch of games that are mostly at home. Manu could skip the game against the T'Wolves and then have ample rest between each contest.

Assuming the surgery is successful...

Hope Ginobili comes back full healthy. This is the best scenario for both him & the Spurs. The timing is less important.

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Originally Posted by timvp

Looking at the schedule, a December 20th return makes sense.

Sat 20 vs Toronto
Mon 22 vs Sacramento
Tue 23 vs Minnesota
Thu 25 @ Phoenix
Sat 27 vs Memphis
Tue 30 vs Milwaukee

That's a relatively easy stretch of games that are mostly at home. Manu could skip the game against the T'Wolves and then have ample rest between each contest.

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That kinda helps the wounds a bit. :wow

If he repeats his comback at the ASB like he did in 2003, fine with me.

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Originally Posted by boutons_

If he repeats his comback at the ASB like he did in 2003, fine with me.

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He played 69 games that season, so I hardly think he sat until the ASB. That amount of time would have put him in less than 40 games, since it's not the true halfway point of the season, but a bit past it.

Year Team G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
02-03 SAS 69 5 20.7 0.438 0.345 0.737 0.7 1.7 2.3 2.0 1.4 0.2 1.45 2.50 7.6

I hope Mason steps up big. He showed a lot of promise in a starting role last year even though Arenas was out.

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Originally Posted by team-work

Hope Ginobili comes back full healthy. This is the best scenario for both him & the Spurs. The timing is less important.

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Yup yup.

6-9months for full recovery.

The silver lining in this dark cloud is, Roger Mason will have more than ample opportunity to learn the system and entrench himself as the starter @ 2-guard. In fact, if Mason is able to contribute a Michael Finley-esque 10pts ppg, that would be ideal. Anything more than that would be gravy and icing.

"Though Ginobili on Thursday told an Argentine newspaper he expected to return to action six to eight weeks after the operation, sources familiar with the procedure say it is much more likely he will be out for two to three months".

Uh well 8 weeks is 2 months, so if he is out, an extra month who cares?? All that matters is we get him back healthy. I don't care if he missed the whole first half of the season, as long as he gets healthy.

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Originally Posted by dbreiden83080

"Though Ginobili on Thursday told an Argentine newspaper he expected to return to action six to eight weeks after the operation, sources familiar with the procedure say it is much more likely he will be out for two to three months".

Uh well 8 weeks is 2 months, so if he is out, an extra month who cares?? All that matters is we get him back healthy. I don't care if he missed the whole first half of the season, as long as he gets healthy.

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Amen!

Ginobili missing half the regular season would be a disaster.

Last year, Spurs were only 8 losses away from being out of the playoffs. Spurs suffered some injuries form the big 3 but it wasn't major ones.
Spurs' old rotation players will be one year older and new additions are mostly huge question marks. So if Manu is out for 40 games there is a quite significant chance to see Spurs missing the playoffs.

I don't want to be the doomsday guy but you have to face the reality. The west is very good and after a quite poor off season, making the playoffs isn't a lock for a Manuless aging Spurs team.

Anyway, Manu will have his surgery this week. We will know then what the timetable will be instead of the wild guesses made today.

I hope he doesn't pull a last-season-horry.

Manu's not going to play a whole season - we all know that.

Might as well get his injury time out of the way early and hope that we have a 100% Manu when he returns for the first time since last fall.

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Originally Posted by Bruno

Ginobili missing half the regular season would be a disaster.

Last year, Spurs were only 8 losses away from being out of the playoffs. Spurs suffered some injuries form the big 3 but it wasn't major ones.
Spurs' old rotation players will be one year older and new additions are mostly huge question marks. So if Manu is out for 40 games there is a quite significant chance to see Spurs missing the playoffs.

I don't want to be the doomsday guy but you have to face the reality. The west is very good and after a quite poor off season, making the playoffs isn't a lock for a Manuless aging Spurs team.

Anyway, Manu will have his surgery this week. We will know then what the timetable will be instead of the wild guesses made today.

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spurs got younger


mason is younger

tp and duncan are still young

spurs also have trainging camp knowing manu is out

should help ones trying to make team play better

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Spurs as an 8 seed or miss the playoffs if the west doesn't regress this year. I just don't like the makeup of this team, especially without Manu.

spurs will make playoffs with a all star and finals mvp player tp
and an allstar player named duncan and finals mvp

lower playoff teams are not more talented then spurs without manu

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Originally Posted by Bruno

Ginobili missing half the regular season would be a disaster. ....

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Parker missed a month of the season last year, and was hurting for a month before that. So they had injuries to contend with last season too.

If Manu's back by mid-January, I say the Spurs will be fine. If it goes longer than that, they'll be in trouble. They probably just don't have enough scoring without him, unless Mason really turns up his game.

i personally am encouraged by this. The only way for Manu to get healthy is for him to have surgery and not play. If he didn't have the surgery, we'd all be on ankle watch for the season. He probably should have had this done immediately after the playoff but getting a healthy Manu in Jan, tune up in Feb and Mar and be ready to go for April, May June is fine by me.

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Originally Posted by urunobili

Time enough for Mason to pick it up with us... he has a golden opportunity to show what he is about...

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:tu

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Originally Posted by Whisky Dog

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Spurs as an 8 seed or miss the playoffs if the west doesn't regress this year. I just don't like the makeup of this team, especially without Manu.

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:lol

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Originally Posted by T Park

:lol

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Sorry to burst your bubble, but it really isn't that hard to believe. I don't agree with it, nor do I think it will happen, but it's certainly in the realm of possibility, and so therefore wouldn't surprise me. Portland will be another team in the mix this year, and so will the Clippers. That adds two legit teams to a conference that had its first place team 5 games ahead of its last place team. The Spurs don't have much room for error.

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Originally Posted by T Park

:lol

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If the west doesn't regress, as I stated, then the Spurs potentially have only a few wins differential from last season keeping them out of the playoffs. If the west has actually improved then there is no room to be worse, and the Spurs minus Manu for half a season or more are definitely worse.

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Originally Posted by Ronaldo McDonald

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it really isn't that hard to believe. I don't agree with it, nor do I think it will happen, but it's certainly in the realm of possibility, and so therefore wouldn't surprise me. Portland will be another team in the mix this year, and so will the Clippers. That adds two legit teams to a conference that had its first place team 5 games ahead of its last place team. The Spurs don't have much room for error.

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portland is not better then spurs without manu

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Originally Posted by Ronaldo McDonald

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it really isn't that hard to believe. I don't agree with it, nor do I think it will happen, but it's certainly in the realm of possibility, and so therefore wouldn't surprise me. Portland will be another team in the mix this year, and so will the Clippers. That adds two legit teams to a conference that had its first place team 5 games ahead of its last place team. The Spurs don't have much room for error.

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The clippers? Seriously? :lol

Definitely going to get a lot of flak for this but I really think the Spurs are going to do worse tha ppl are expecting next season. With Manu being out they will struggle mightily and there is no way Pop can just ride Duncan all season and expect them to have anything left in the tank. I wouldn't be surprised if they are fighting for a #6-8 seed coming into the playoffs.

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Originally Posted by ducks

spurs got younger


mason is younger

tp and duncan are still young

spurs also have trainging camp knowing manu is out

should help ones trying to make team play better

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Basically the entire team came back, and their all a year older (most being in their 30's).

One 28 year old coming in doesnt make the Spurs younger.

I don't know about the Spurs missing the playoffs, doubtful, but they are gonna be a hell of a lot closer to an 8th seed than a 1st seed.

As long as Manu, TP and TD are healthy and fresh in Playoffs, Playoffs seeds doesn't matter...

the rest will do him and the team some good provided he gets back in time.

does anyone know the avg age of last years 15 man roster? Because this one for sure got younger with Ian and Mason taking over for Barry and Horry, and also Hill taking over for Damon, we got alot younger there, and if Tolliver makes it, that helps too. I bet we got at least 3 yrs younger, which is pretty significant.

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Originally Posted by Manufan909

does anyone know the avg age of last years 15 man roster? Because this one for sure got younger with Ian and Mason taking over for Barry and Horry, and also Hill taking over for Damon, we got alot younger there, and if Tolliver makes it, that helps too. I bet we got at least 3 yrs younger, which is pretty significant.

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Here are the average ages from the last 4 seasons (the last one is for last season, even though it says 2006-07 in the title):

http://www.nba.com/news/survey_age_2004.html
http://www.nba.com/news/survey_age_2005.html
http://www.nba.com/news/survey_age_2006.html
http://www.nba.com/news/survey_age_2007.html

I'm not going to go ahead and calculate the average age for this team, especially since I don't know how they do the decimal points, and they might not calculate it until November. However, you do have to remember that even though we got younger with Mason, Hill, and potentially Tolliver or Hairston, everyone else got a year older (Parker, Vaughn, Ginobili, Finley, Bowen, Udoka, Duncan, Mahinmi (was counted on last year's 15 man), Oberto, and Bonner). If you're comparing this November to last November, we lost Horry and Barry, and replaced Elson with Thomas. Stoudamire didn't count for either, and there may have been a rookie or two included in last year's calculations.

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Originally Posted by K-State Spur

Manu's not going to play a whole season - we all know that.

Might as well get his injury time out of the way early and hope that we have a 100% Manu when he returns for the first time since last fall.

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Agreed. Although being short-handed to start any season is always less than ideal, this may be a blessing in disguise. I'd rather Manu have surgery, rest and rehab early than have him go into the season worn down while his ankle teeters on the brink. This also forces guys like Udoka, in his second year, and the newbie Mason play larger roles early on which may play major dividends during the playoff run. Mason has already had practice filling in for an injured starter. Time to see what the new role players have to contribute.

The Spurs wanted Manu to rest all summer so would that cure the problem? Would the resting the ankle guarantee that with the grind of the NBA season he wouldn't see this same thing at the end of next season? Maybe its just as well to get it over with now and he will be back for when the real season starts after the all-star split.

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Originally Posted by Biernutz

The Spurs wanted Manu to rest all summer so would that cure the problem? Would the resting the ankle guarantee that with the grind of the NBA season he wouldn't see this same thing at the end of next season? Maybe its just as well to get it over with now and he will be back for when the real season starts after the all-star split.

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it would guarantee more spurstalk.com posters would be happier with him

Cuz we're SOOOO important.

I'm not going into averages per se, but if everyone from the end of the year added 1 yr, that would mean 10-13 years. But Tolliver(just a guess, he might not make it), is ten years younger than Horry was, Hill is 9-14 years younger than Damon, and Mason is 8 yrs younger than Barry, I think it's safe to say we got younger. And the active roster(for the 1sst month at least) will be younger still, with a certain 31 yr old out.

Again, I'm just guesstimating, so if anyone wants to actually calculate and call me then fine, it's not too big of a deal anyways.