Mosdefinition wrote:It's almost like he suffered an injury no one has ever come back the same from and he's going to have to completely change his game
Probably
this, sadly
That said, I can't even recall anyone near his caliber suffering this south of age 30; Kobe (34), Ewing (36), Dominique (32), Elgin Baylor (36). Cousins and Wall are the only stars under 30 I i can remember tearing an achilles (Matthews was 29, but never a #1 option, let alone a star).
Dominique probably has the strongest case to say he "fully recovered to pre-achilles levels." However, Wilkins was already way better than Cousins is at the same stage removed from injury, so it's not looking good.
Wilkins had his injury in game 42 of a season where he'd started all of his team's games up to that point and averaged 38 mpg
Cousins had his injury in game 48 last year, and had also started every game, averaging 36 mpg
So, basically the same recovery window, but Wilkins was fantastic in the season immediately following his injury:
-2nd team All-NBA and top-5 in MVP voting
-Started 70 games and averaged 37 mpg.
-Averaged 30 ppg on an excellent 47% shooting
-Career high (by wide margin) 38% 3pt shooting
-Carrier high in True Shooting percent
-He attempted more FT per game than in any of the previous 5 seasons
-His rebounding numbers were better than any of the 4 seasons between ages 27 and 30
-Fouls were the lowest level of his entire career (Barkley always says fouls shoot up when you can't move)
-His advanced metrics (BPM, VORP) were better than any of his late 20s seasons
His blocks were down and defensive box plus minus was negative, but DBPM had always been negative for Wilkins, so nothing new. Surprisingly, his defensive metrics also rebounded at ages 34 and 35 to closely match his age 28 season, which counts for something.
Regardless, the Hawks had already been a bad defensive team in the 2 seasons before he got hurt, with Dominique being a key contributor to that bad defense. By the time he returned, they hadn't been out of the 1st round in 4 years. In fact, the year before he got hurt, the Hawks were 43-29 and lost in the 1st round to the Pistons... And the year he returned, they were again 43-29 and lost in the 1st round to the Bulls.
So we can't say the injury dramatically impacted either his defense or winning/losing, and he had the best offensive season maybe ever in his career after tearing the Achilles.
I read that to mean that "one person" came back to be the same... And Cousins is not on his way to joining that elite club
