Lonzo Ball Recovery thread update p91 - Back to 5 on 5: No Setbacks

[jordanwilliams6]

I'm not a doctor but proclaiming you're at 70% after 2.5 years of rehab doesn't sound all that encouraging to me

It was a weird comment though because he also said ‘good enough to play’. What does that mean? If it was 9 months down the track in the middle of the season, would he be playing?

[JohnnyTapwater]

70%? I want to know what % he felt at the beginning of the season.

[dougthonus]

I'm not a doctor but proclaiming you're at 70% after 2.5 years of rehab doesn't sound all that encouraging to me

It was a weird comment though because he also said ‘good enough to play’. What does that mean? If it was 9 months down the track in the middle of the season, would he be playing?

The whole concept of % healthy is meaningless. What is 0%? Can't walk? Can't run? Can't play 5/5 at the local gym? Not good enough to be on an NBA roster?

There's really no rational way to have any idea what 70% even means, like is your vertical or speed only 70% of what it used to be? Probably not what he means.

So when I hear something like 70%, I think all it really means is he still has a pretty long way to go. Typically when guys return from injury and say they're 100% they still aren't as good as they were previously anyway, but there is no standard to what a percentage means and every player that uses one just makes up a number based on unknown things that you can't meaningfully extrapolate.

[Guru]

I'm not a doctor but proclaiming you're at 70% after 2.5 years of rehab doesn't sound all that encouraging to me

It was a weird comment though because he also said ‘good enough to play’. What does that mean? If it was 9 months down the track in the middle of the season, would he be playing?

The whole concept of % healthy is meaningless. What is 0%? Can't walk? Can't run? Can't play 5/5 at the local gym? Not good enough to be on an NBA roster?

There's really no rational way to have any idea what 70% even means, like is your vertical or speed only 70% of what it used to be? Probably not what he means.

So when I hear something like 70%, I think all it really means is he still has a pretty long way to go. Typically when guys return from injury and say they're 100% they still aren't as good as they were previously anyway, but there is no standard to what a percentage means and every player that uses one just makes up a number based on unknown things that you can't meaningfully extrapolate.

I view it as "I can do everything but not at the level I used to."

[WindyCityBorn]

I'm not a doctor but proclaiming you're at 70% after 2.5 years of rehab doesn't sound all that encouraging to me

I expect he will be able to able to play, but nowhere near what he was preinjury. Even if get to 90 percent that would still be the case. He missed too much time.

[HomoSapien]

I'm not a doctor but proclaiming you're at 70% after 2.5 years of rehab doesn't sound all that encouraging to me

I think you have to basically start the clock from whenever he got the cartilage transplant, because he basically was at 0% in his rehab until then.

[Bulliever2020]

I'm not a doctor but proclaiming you're at 70% after 2.5 years of rehab doesn't sound all that encouraging to me

It was a weird comment though because he also said ‘good enough to play’. What does that mean? If it was 9 months down the track in the middle of the season, would he be playing?

The whole concept of % healthy is meaningless. What is 0%? Can't walk? Can't run? Can't play 5/5 at the local gym? Not good enough to be on an NBA roster?

There's really no rational way to have any idea what 70% even means, like is your vertical or speed only 70% of what it used to be? Probably not what he means.

So when I hear something like 70%, I think all it really means is he still has a pretty long way to go. Typically when guys return from injury and say they're 100% they still aren't as good as they were previously anyway, but there is no standard to what a percentage means and every player that uses one just makes up a number based on unknown things that you can't meaningfully extrapolate.

This is my take on it as well. The percentage means nothing other than Lonzo is clearly communicating he is nowhere near where he was pre-injury, while also trying to split the difference and placate the naysayers/"haters" saying he has no chance to come back by giving a percentage that is above the median. It's a no-report report to me that is clearly trying to straddle the fence. It's not a negative report per se but there is nothing about it that is positive imo.

[DropStep]

2: Only one player has ever missed as much (or more) time as he will miss and come back to be a relevant player (Grant Hill)

Good call on Hill. This makes me think of Shaun Livingston, who, depending on your definition of "missed time" was close, too. Klay Thompson missed time with two different injuries and had some active time between them, which is not quite the same - and neither is he. Jermaine O'Neal came back from three years mostly injured, and was kinda relevant, but again, not the same. Bill Walton with the Celts? Severely compromised, obviously, but 6th man award.

I think there was some other Bull who missed almost two seasons and came back and did pretty well. Seems like it was some sort of gambling suspension rather than injury, though. Then he had an unfortunate encounter with a cigar cutter, missed over two more years and came back to finish pretty high on the MVP ballot.

[DropStep]

BTW I'm actually kind of pumped by the 70% estimate. He's got five more months before he has to play a game. If he gets over 85%, he will be useful for us, and will likely stay in the league in some fashion. Hopefully he will get incrementally better from there as he gets his feet under him.

[biggestbullsfan]

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[ChettheJet]

It's hilarious to hear people putting values on his 70% comment. Kids there's no meter he plugs into his knee and it reads out what it is. He feels good or he wouldn't talk about it at all, he'd give the old right on the imaginary timetable that nobody knows anyway. You react to an inexact figure and have him retired in a wheelchair. He feels good enough to get on a court and move around and let somebody post video of it. Otherwise he just tell the person, hey don't show me OK.

You know what I see, he's not wearing a brace or sleeve on his knee. If he was not feeling right or had some instability, he wouldn't be out the bare doing even the light effort he's showing. Did you watch the NBA lately, how many guys with or without repaired knees wear one if not two sleeves?

[WindyCityBorn]

It's hilarious to hear people putting values on his 70% comment. Kids there's no meter he plugs into his knee and it reads out what it is. He feels good or he wouldn't talk about it at all, he'd give the old right on the imaginary timetable that nobody knows anyway. You react to an inexact figure and have him retired in a wheelchair. He feels good enough to get on a court and move around and let somebody post video of it. Otherwise he just tell the person, hey don't show me OK.

You know what I see, he's not wearing a brace or sleeve on his knee. If he was not feeling right or had some instability, he wouldn't be out the bare doing even the light effort he's showing. Did you watch the NBA lately, how many guys with or without repaired knees wear one if not two sleeves?

He is definitely gonna play for us next season unless he has a medical setback. He still has another 5 months to train/rehab.

[madvillian]

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Yikes. That's slow tempo, even for training. Those guys are getting paid to make him look good in videos. Is he still not playing any pickup games of 5 against 5? That's...not good.

[Chi town]

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Yikes. That's slow tempo, even for training. Those guys are getting paid to make him look good in videos. Is he still not playing any pickup games of 5 against 5? That's...not good.

Slomo.

Not even close to even NBA summer training intensity.

He looks like he’s going warmup not to get hurt level

[madvillian]

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Yikes. That's slow tempo, even for training. Those guys are getting paid to make him look good in videos. Is he still not playing any pickup games of 5 against 5? That's...not good.

Slomo.

Not even close to even NBA summer training intensity.

He looks like he’s going warmup not to get hurt level

Exactly what I was thinking. Like, remember Derrick's workouts? Or hell, even Pat's last year? Those guys were dripping sweat going 95% on each drill against guys bodying them up and fouling them.

This was like a warmup session.

[biggestbullsfan]

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Yikes. That's slow tempo, even for training. Those guys are getting paid to make him look good in videos. Is he still not playing any pickup games of 5 against 5? That's...not good.

Slomo.

Not even close to even NBA summer training intensity.

He looks like he’s going warmup not to get hurt level

Probably still getting his legs underneath him. He was just able to really run recently. Just steps to go.

[HomoSapien]

I'm not a doctor but proclaiming you're at 70% after 2.5 years of rehab doesn't sound all that encouraging to me

It was a weird comment though because he also said ‘good enough to play’. What does that mean? If it was 9 months down the track in the middle of the season, would he be playing?

Just listened to the clip and I think the phrasing of the question made it confusing. He asked him "out of a 100, where are you?" which lead to Lonzo saying he's at 70% ,which makes it sound kind of meh. If it was phrased more like if 10's your best and 1's your worst where are you right now and he responded with "I'm at a 7" I think we'd take that as pretty optimistic.

[sco]

I'm not a doctor but proclaiming you're at 70% after 2.5 years of rehab doesn't sound all that encouraging to me

It was a weird comment though because he also said ‘good enough to play’. What does that mean? If it was 9 months down the track in the middle of the season, would he be playing?

Just listened to the clip and I think the phrasing of the question made it confusing. He asked him "out of a 100, where are you?" which lead to Lonzo saying he's at 70% ,which makes it sound kind of meh. If it was phrased more like if 10's your best and 1's your worst where are you right now and he responded with "I'm at a 7" I think we'd take that as pretty optimistic.

I want him to come back and be healthy going forward as much as anyone. I think we're ascribing a lot of precision to an off-the-cuff response. I will add that after all of his false starts in his recovery, it is understandable that he tends to not to make overly optimistic projections.

[Ice Man]

He is definitely

You lost me at your 3rd word. This is the least definite situation in NBA injury history. OK slight exaggeration but the point stands. Ain't nobody knows nothing.

[biggestbullsfan]

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