michaelm wrote:FNQ wrote:Flash Falcon X wrote:
Agreed. I don't think the achilles will affect him as bad as people think.
Klay is Klay because of his shooting. He was never some guy who relied on dunking in the paint to be productive. His conditioning will take a while to come back, but even if he's regulated to just knocking down corner 3s for his first 2 months back that's already a huge help because he'll make those most of the time which puts so much pressure on the defense that it opens up the floor more compared to the last 2 seasons.
Two ways to look at it:
1) He didnt rely on athleticism overtly. This is true, his game is built on his shot and his BBIQ. This means his floor remains very high no matter what happens
2) He did have several aspects of athleticism that he did rely on. He doesn't move laterally very quick, but he could quickly go from triple threat into a jumper, almost mechanically, extremely quick. This is relevant because the motion, while looking smooth, is a bit herky/jerky to go from 0 to jumper that fast. So there's risk of stress on the legs there. But most importantly, you're looking at 2 differently injured legs. Usually with one injury, a player will favor the healthy leg until the other one is more comfortable. Klay has a unique situation where both legs are on the mend, which could result in some bad shooting to start
tldr - there's a lot more to athleticism than lateral quickness, and we should expect it to be rough to start
Yes, the hamstring injury was likely a significant contributor to the ACL tear, and the ACL tear to the Achilles' injury.
You would know better than I do how long an elite sportsman who can devote himself to training with access to every resource will take to regain full strength in his leg after an Achilles' injury, but one other athletic attribute he had was great endurance, which I rather doubt he will have early on at least.
Its a tough call because I dont have all the info I'd usually have... but so far everyone I've talked to seems optimistic, for whatever thats worth?
