Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
After suffering a sprained ankle in Team USA’s 93-92 OT win vs. Turkey, Jayson Tatum reached out to his head coach to give him the good news in regards to his injury.
“It feels better than when it first happened,” Tatum told reporters after the Team USA win. “I can walk a little bit. Obviously, it’s sore … just get some treatment and see how I feel.”
No NBA team has the potential to be significantly impacted by an injury in this World Cup than the Celtics.
Still, Stevens has made it clear on more than one occasion that the potential for one of his players to get hurt in World Cup play is not something he’s losing sleep over.
“To me there’s risk in every workout, every five-on-five game, walking down the stairs …,” Stevens told reporters at the ABCD Hoop Dreams basketball event at the Celtics’ practice facility.
Stevens added, “End of the day, I’m not worried one iota about that. Basketball injuries can happen in a lot of different avenues, a lot of different ways, organized and unorganized.”
Jayson Tatum is one of, if not the most important player on the Celtics’ roster this upcoming season. Needless to say, a serious ankle injury just about a month and a half before the regular season starts is not something the Celtics need.
As Tatum himself noted, if he makes all three free throws at the end of regulation, Team USA wins without going to OT and the Celtic avoids injury. Now Tatum will miss at least two games; Team USA’s second of two second-round games is the soonest he’ll return
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) September 4, 2019
Fortunately, it seems as though Tatum should be on the mend soon and may even be able to return to Team USA to finish the tournament. On the other hand, it may be in Tatum’s best interest to take it easy as we are rapidly nearing the start of training camp.
The question is at this point, is it worth it? While missing two games isn’t the end of the world, at this point in the summer, it’d be a big risk to trot him back out there. He’s already had all of the burden on his body of spending his summer with Team USA and he could use some time to heal in the meantime. Sprained ankles are no joke and it’s crucial that he’s fully healed and at full strength before giving it another go.
As for Brad Stevens, it doesn’t seem like he’s too worried about it. When asked about the injury he gave a classic Brad Stevens answer detailing that injuries can happen at any point of time, no matter if it’s on the court, or off of it. He really is the best at giving us all the exact answer that we’d expect him to give. A pro’s pro.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Celtics/Team USA deal with this injury going forward, especially after Brad’s comments. While Brad is right that injuries are completely spontaneous, recurring injuries are a completely different story. They don’t need this ankle injury following Tatum throughout the season if it doesn’t completely heal prior to training camp
After already having an abridged off-season, it’s going to be key for Tatum (and the rest of his Celtic teammates) to get some rest before the whirlwind that is the NBA season picks up in late-October. It remains to be seen how this off-season workload will effect the guys in the dog days of February, and beyond, but one thing is clear, they need Jayson Tatum at full strength on Opening Night.
[polldaddy poll=10400877]Page 2: Where Tony Allen doesn’t deserve this kind of disrespect
— Tony Allen (@aa000G9) September 3, 2019
You know what Tony, I don’t get it either.
This is the same man that Kobe Bryant (the player that this hypothetical is based around) said was “the best defender (he’d) ever faced”.
The same man that made 6 All-Defensive teams.
And the same man who was dubbed “The Grindfather” and had his jersey retired in Memphis due to his hellacious defense and hard nosed mantra.
But sure, let’s pretend Dwyane Wade was this All-World defender and that Tony Allen never existed. Great work, Sportscenter.
(I love defensive highlights so this is the perfect excuse for me to dump some into your Morning Dump…enjoy)
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