Jeff McDonald: Pop says Manu will miss first month of regular season
For the first time, the Spurs have been able to quantify the cost of Manu Ginobili's offseason ankle surgery.
The star guard has been ruled out for all of November, and could miss as many as 25 games to start the regular season, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
"Manu will be out 20 to 25 games -- until mid-December at the latest," Popovich said Monday, the day before the Spurs open training camp.
As for the earliest Ginobili might suit up?
"It won't be in November," Popovich said.
Ginobili, 31, initially injured a ligament in his left ankle during the playoffs last season, and re-aggravated the malady while playing for Argentina in last month's Olympic Games. He underwent arthroscopic surgery Sept. 3 to correct a posterior impingement in the ankle, and at the time gave a timetable of eight-to-12 weeks for recovery.
The optimistic end of that timetable would have had Ginobili ready in time to start the regular season. For now, it appears the Spurs will approach Ginobili's return even more cautiously than that.
However long Ginobili is out, the loss is sure to have a noticeable effect on the Spurs. Ginobili averaged a team-high and career-best 19.5 points per game last season, en route to earning NBA Sixth Man of the Year honors.
Still, Ginobili arrived at Spurs headquarters Monday in high spirits. He joked to reporters that he now knows more about ankle surgery than he ever wanted to know.
"I feel good," said Ginobili, who wore no brace or any other support on his repaired left ankle. "I'm not playing or doing anything to put it at risk. But walking around, it just feels great."
Even Popovich was in a good mood Monday, despite the prospect of missing his leading scorer for perhaps the first quarter of the season. He called the timing of Ginobili's injury and subsequent surgery a blessing in disguise.
"Had he not hurt it in the Olympics, he probably would have done it 15, 25, 35 games into the season," Popovich said. "It could be a blessing that he's gotten operated on. They've gone in there and cleaned things out. His ankle will be in better shape than it's been in years, I would imagine."
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courtside/
"Had he not hurt it in the Olympics, he probably would have done it 15, 25, 35 games into the season," Popovich said. "It could be a blessing that he's gotten operated on. They've gone in there and cleaned things out. His ankle will be in better shape than it's been in years, I would imagine."
Or he could've gotten it operated in June after the playoffs and would be ready.
Aw but what the , who cares about starting out the gate without your second best player!!!
I thought that was Tony!?...
Aw but what the , who cares about starting out the gate without your second best player!!!
Parker 2007 Forum.
I say sit him every ty team during the reg. season.
I thought that was Tony!?
Your a bad man
it's good to know we have some sort of time set to have him back... it will be key to our season a good start without him... the team would grow dramatically out of this situation with role players rising top the occasion and Manu knows out system well.. he'll just be rusty and out of rhythm... if things go our way he'll be peaking in March...
It damn sucks.
In a western conference were you needed 50 wins to be in the playoffs, no Manu for 20 to 25 games is a big blow. Spurs will likely have to fight in March and April to get a playoff spot.
And if Tony and/or Tim miss also some games because of injuries, Spurs could even miss the playoffs.
it, we'll be okay.
Mason will be fine. Udoka will step up. Michael Finley will...
no way the spurs are missing any playoffs.
ill make sure of it, personally.
God back away from the pills....
Just give me the word, i'll be there re-enacting Tonya Harding goon incidents.
The Spurs play 14 games in November. No problem.They've gone in there and cleaned things out. His ankle will be in better shape than it's been in years
Manu could be better than last year, his best in the league.
Tank it, get the number 1 pick...
Or if you could understand Pops statement, that meant they would NOT have gone the surgery route if he didn't play in the olympics. They would've let him just rest....and 15,20, 25 games later he probably would've hurt it.Or he could've gotten it operated in June after the playoffs and would be ready.
Aw but what the , who cares about starting out the gate without your second best player!!!
Or they could've done the arthro exploritory and fixed it....
Whatever.
Spurs’ Ginobili continues surgery recovery
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns
As long as Mason and Ime play 80% of what Barry+Manu+Finley did last year. They won't be enough to cover all that, but I don't know what other SG/SF is going to make it. Maybe Hill/Salim/Hairstin/Farmar would get some of those. As long as Pop let's his mancrush for Fin to die.
Michael Finley will...continue to give us nothing
i guess we get to see what roger mason can do sooner rather than later.
First month of the season would be until the end of November. I don't see Manu back until mid December, which the article stated...but that is more than a month.
No suprise there. Now this opens the door for Roger Mason i just hope he gets the starting job over Finley. We all know what Finley brings and there's no doubt he's lost a step and he should be coming off the bench.
So it's time to see what Mason can bring to the table for us. When he started for Wizards he put up solid numbers so if he get's starters minutes he get's a chance to get comfortable with the starters and obviously he will give us more than finley as a starter at this stage.
Thankfully we have a relatively easy first couple months of the schedule. Manu will be back by the time things start to kick into high gear come January.
I'm much more concerned at the lack of depth this team has outside of the big 3 than I am for Manu missing a good month or so.
not a big deal IMO..
there's no way the West is as good as last year..Golden State is terrible..Denver is worse without Camby(even though he's overrated)..Portland is unproven..the West won't be as compe ive as last year..
we still have a 1-2 punch in Duncan and Parker..we still have the best coach in the NBA..this could be a good thing..if Mason plays like he did when he replaced Arenas last year, we won't miss a lot for that stretch..we'll see..this will give Mason, Hill and Stoudamire an opportunity, and we'll see if they step up..
if all goes well, we get a healthy Manu back in January..he'll get in game shape and in a rhythm by the time the playoffs come around, and we'll have a major advantage there..
odd years have given us good luck..we'll see..
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