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San Antonio guard Manu Ginobili admitted on Friday morning that the only way his ankle will fully recovery is if he has surgery, according to SpursReport.

"I had imaging studies done on my ankle and basically, the studies indicate that the ligament is just as it was two months ago, when I had the first resonance," Ginobili said in an interview with Argentina's Spanish language newspaper, La Nacion. "It is not worse, that's important. Now the issue is that it's not better either and it seems that the only way to recovery fully is to have surgery."

per wiretap

This is very bad news for us hopefully he'll recover quickly.

It's not that bad, it isn't good surely, but it's not terrible. The time he'll miss (regardless of a few regular season games or not), combined with getting into form again will be occuring quite early in the season.

Manu out months not weeks. He'll miss the early stretch of regular season games for sure. Plus another week or two just to get back in to playing shape. Someone will have to step up early, perhaps Finley playing more than expected early on.

Still insignificant in the longer run of things. Other than some ordinary playing adjustment, Manu's fine when he comes back.

Depressing given that it will really hinder us when getting HCA in the playoffs. It will take a while for him to get into game shape.

I really don't expect us to get the #1 seed, but am definitely expecting #2 or #3...

Also, it depends on who we'll be playing after the 1st round with how much HCA will matter.

This organization always seems to pull a trick out of their sleeves.

I have a feeling the Spurs will be in the HCA hunt till the end.

I expect Manu will be back with the Spurs around late November depending on his progress with his ankle. Until then, the Spurs will hold down the fort as they always do best.

Great wrote:This organization always seems to pull a trick out of their sleeves.

I have a feeling the Spurs will be in the HCA hunt till the end.

I am not so optimistic. The Lakers and Hornets sure look damn good on paper... and only have room to improve.

I definitely buy the Hornets being good again, to an extent - I just don't buy this Hornets title contender talk.

Because, the Hornets aren't built to go far in the playoffs with the limited offensive ability they (still) have, as well as a pretty iffy bench at back-up PG (Mike James 04 PIston, Rocket form? Or last two years form?) and back up PF/C. Unless they get somebody, Julian Wright has to break through and become a star-caliber scorer. Which isn't likely with Peja and Posey there. Wright's definitely going to be a nice facilitator and off the ball scoring guy, but what about creating for himself and shooting? Up in the air how effective and skilled he'll be there.

Chris Paul, a 3rd option guy in West (as well as the sole source for legit big man offense) playing 2nd option, and a bunch of limited role-players isn't nearly enough.

Defensively, they don't have a set, well-rounded wing-defender at all, and only one quality wing defender. Posey isn't quite the all-around defender because he's not that good at defending players where there's a lot of movement, quicker perimeter players. He's lost the lateral quickness he once had there. The reason I said "set", is because of Julian Wright, who I think could well be that all-around defender for them... but again, is he going to get that consistent oppurtunity to play, and, is he going to play late in games to not just have a limited impact on defense (however much he plays this year)? I doubt it, again, because he's still young and Peja and Posey are there. Part of his eventual legit oppurtunity will be establishing himself as a defender, and gaining recognition with the refs. But I think that's going to be there for him in 09-010 and/or 010-011. Barring injuries and he fills in quite well, this year.

In the regular season New Orleans should do well, be near the top of the seedings, but in the playoffs, up to this point, they don't have enough offensive creativity and overall depth to contend for the title.

I don't care if Manu comes back as early as Nov, I still think it's way too much time lost. That means He won't be in shape and in rythm until at least Jan I would guess. And that time table might be optimistic.

This team has not done enough this offseason to get better. Unless there is a miracle trade coming soon, this team will not look like a contender before the ASB. YEah, we've always played our best in the second half of seasons (at least when we've won it), but we still looked like contenders.

To be honest, I think our front court is weaker than crap right now. Ian the hero, whatever. If that guy isn't one of the best rookies in the NBA this year( actually, he's not a rookie, but compared to the other rookies atleast) this frontcourt is going to supply Pop with no shotblocking threat and basically allow high percentage FGA to opponents. Our defense is good every year because we have shot blocking that our perimeter guys can funnel drivers to. We collapse, we swarm. When TD was not in games in the playoffs, it was an open lane to the basket. We'll see more of that.

And with guys like Bowen getting older and Manu not around and all broken anyway, our perimeter defense too will start to deteriorate.

I haven't even mentioned our offense, I wish that was the only focus of our problems for the coming season. Finley a bigger role? Good lord, we are in trouble. We needed to get rid of him not bring him back with a bigger role. We don't need a 39% shooter taking more shots.

I don't see Finley having a bigger role with Mason around

I agree we definitely haven't done enough to get better off of last season, it's just going to take a lot longer now. Pretty disappointing off-season, now it will be very interesting to see how things go over the next year.

I seriously think the Spurs could miss the playoffs this year. Your team will be a year older which is pretty damn old for basketball standards and now Manu is out which will definetly loose you some important games. Look how close the west was last year.

C_Money wrote:I seriously think the Spurs could miss the playoffs this year. Your team will be a year older which is pretty damn old for basketball standards and now Manu is out which will definetly loose you some important games. Look how close the west was last year.

No way. It would take a hell of a lot more than Manu missing half a season for the Spurs to become a lottery team. Manu could miss the whole season and Duncan and Parker would still be enough to get them into the postseason. Granted they wouldn't go far once there, but they'd be there.

Two words TIM DUNCAN.....
Enough said.

the western conf. being that close of a race last yr was like an anomaly imo....it hardly ever happens like that....i would be surprised if were the same way this year....but then again ...who knows....