thesack12 wrote:Yeah, apparently risk of setbacks and having to change injury timelines is only exclusive to the Detroit Pistons. Which is why they didn't provide a tangible timeline for several weeks.
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/injuries/The league wide injury report sure does have a lot of time frames attached to specific players/injuries. But hey man team doctors can't predict the future, and watch out for those twisted ankles they are FAR too volatile to make the super risky action on putting a timeline on them.
There are only two categories: "Out until at least..." and "Game time decision" with a little less than half the injuries being "Game time decision." Know what the translation of "Game time decision" is? Day to day, which is "Don't know right now. May not know tomorrow either." And since every single team's injuries are listed under the same two categories, the Pistons doctors clearly operate in no different a manner than any other team's doctors.
As for all those other timelines of "Out until at least..."? The translation there is NOT "WILL PLAY the next game after this date." It's simply "Will not play until at least this date." So in the grand scheme it's not really a timeline in the sense some of you are referring to.
Let's apply the known Pistons statements about Cade's ankle to a possible scenario. Cade's practicing, doing what he needs to do, and gets checked out every single day.
"How's it feeling today?"
"Pretty good, still a little sore."
"Ok, let's keep at it and check again tomorrow."
Status: Game time decision/day to day
"How's it feeling today?"
"Pretty good, still a little sore but seems like it might be getting better."
"Ok, let's keep at it and check again tomorrow."
Status: On track to play Game 1
At some point, Cade says, "Now the pain is getting worse."
Status: Out until at least October 30.
Is that a realistic scenario? Absolutely, 100% realistic. We don't know if based on perhaps a decreasing pain level at some point Cade's workout activity was stepped up and caused a little setback. Now, if that scenario played itself out before Game 1 and the Pistons simply didn't disclose it to the public in order to not damage ticket sales for Game 1, go ahead and bust their chops all you want for it, especially if you had bought tickets or were planning on going to the game just to see Cade play. But turning this into some bigger, deeper and nefarious action on the organization's part that is fully deserving of the full wrath of internet warriors who had no intention of attending the game anyway is ridiculous. And as long as anyone wants to argue that it isn't, I'll argue that it is.