Al’s Achilles still an issue with opener three days away
Posted on October 25th, 2009 – 6:58 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
Al Jefferson, feeling better after last week’s flu knocked him down, participated in some of today’s practice at Target Center, but he remains bothered by that sore Achilles tendon.
He rode the exercise bike for the final portion of practice and did not scrimmage with his teammates.
“I have no idea,” Kurt Rambis said when asked if Jefferson will play in Wednesday’s season opener.”His illness is a non issue. His Achilles is what we’re addressing now and we’re helping him work through that.
“We’ll see how he is tomorrow. That’s how we’ll keep going. We’ll keep evaluating him the following day, keep increasing his activity and see how he handles it.”
Jefferson wasn’t in much of a mood to talk to reporters today, so he didn’t.
Kevin Love, back from his hand surgery in New York City last week, did. He had that left hand protected in a split that he says he has to wear only for practice, where he watched and rode the exercise bike and ran a little today.
“Originally, they were saying six to eight weeks, but hopefully I can get back sooner than that,” Love said. “They didn’t make any promises.”
He said he will have an x-ray taken again in 3 1/2 to 4 weeks and have that sent to the New York City doctor to see if he gets the OK to return.
He called the insertion of three screws into his hand “standard procedure” for his injury, a fracture of the fourth metacarpal bone.
“It was pretty straight forward,” he said of the surgery. “I’m happy with how everything went.”
Assistant coach Reggie Theus looked over at Jefferson and Love both riding exercise bikes in the corner during practice and figured there were at least 35 points and a couple dozen rebounds sitting there watching.
39 Responses to "Al’s Achilles still an issue with opener three days away"
Thanks for the update Jerry; well written as always.
Jerry, is there any idea if he’ll keep the same starting lineup as he did the last few games without Al if he’s unable to go on Wednesday? I would think if there’s any issue with it they shoudl let him rest and continue to see what Pecherov and others have in this offense. Also, any way you can heckle Rambis to give Ramon more playing time (ie alongside Flynn)?
Wolves season preview blog:
I did a story for the Sunday paper (it was one of those new “Sunday Exclusives” that isn’t going on the web right away) about the Sessions-Flynn thing. Rambis was pretty clear he doesn’t like the combination of them playing together, which is problematic given the investment Kahn has made in both of them. Kahn says not to worry, it’ll all work out. They’re going to have to play together some. There’s not enough minutes splitting 48 between the two of them to keep both happy.
If Al can’t play, they’ll likely stay with Gomes-Pecherov-Wilkins-Brewer-Flynn. If Al can play, it’ll be interesting to see how he modifies the lineup. Does he look Pecherov in there next to Al and move Gomes to small forward? I’d like to see how Pecherov and Al play together, the inside-outside thing like Love and Al only Pecherov’s three inches taller.
Well…we did play remarkably better WITHOUT Al and Love in preseason…we lose a lot of scoring and rebounding, but Pech and Hollins seem to fit in better with the system Rambis runs…
One thing’s for sure though: Pecherov stands absolutely no chance of guarding Brook Lopez in the season opener.
Jerry,
I thought the And/or debate in the backcourt article was pretty good and definetely a legit question. But my question to you would be if that you had to take a guess, do you think Sessions could possibly be traded at the deadline or in the future, and Kahn signed him because he had good value for that money?
Thing is, they’re committed to starting Jonny and playing him big minutes. You’re going to find a way to play Ramon enough to keep his value up, unless you find a team desperately in need of a starting point guard in February. You’re not going to get much for $4 million backup. He’s only good value if he’s playing 30-plus minutes a game and putting up sizable numbers. Looking further down the road big picture…somebody’s going to get traded, whether it’s Sessions, Rubio or Flynn.
Then it would be Sessions you’d think, unless we get an unbelievable offer on Rubio. I think by the time Rubio comes back into the picture, Jonny’s going to be so popular we won’t be able to trade him just on the potential PR backlash alone.
Any word on what type of crowd they are expecting for the opener. Sold tickets vs. freebies?
I can’t for the life of me understand the fixation over the point guard situation. Flynn has never played back-to-backs, he has never played an 82-game season, and the rookie wall is inevitable.
It’s far too much hand wringing over this matter.
On another trivial matter, in two weeks everyone will forget that Al sat out the final preseason games and (possibly) up to 3 regular season games.
Com’on son.
If Sessions is playing backup minutes he’s goy little value. The best offer he had prior to Kahn was 1 year deals or a 2 year 3.2 from Milwaukee. All 30 teams have the mid-level money to spend and Sessions couldn’t get a deal. That tells you all you need to know about his value at 17M plus for 4 years.
smh
McFly is right: as the season goes on, Flynn will get worn out playing nearly 3x as many games/season as he did in college. Sessions will get minutes, Flynn will inevitably struggle and there is no way we are trading Sessions unless we get another young PG in the deal.
Anyone got news on Siler–have the Hawks picked him up or is he still available? Would be a nice pick up for at a league min salary.
LT: it matters not the minutes Sessions gets but what he does w/what minutes he gets. I’d think a team would relish a relatively fresh Sessions in february who has put up solid numbers based on his minutes than a played 40+ minutes all season long. Against some teams–clippers, warriors, miami..both flynn and sessions could play together. Given the NBA cap climate and EVERYONE trying to cut back its not surprising we were the only ones to make such an offer to sessions. Anyone who puts up year long stats like he did the past 2yrs is a good pick up at that price tag.
Anybody got any lotion? My hands are chapped from wringing them for days…
I only made my comments with the deepest, most sincere respect for Jerry’s work. Jerry is my favorite writer now that Sid is slooowing down a tad.
Bryan is my favorite poster, the stupidity of his posts are hilarious and sad at the same time. MORON.
Will this Achilles issue linger? If it’s only tendinitis they should be able to treat it, correct? I’m worried that Al won’t be the same Al or that he will be missing a lot of games this season.
Hi Jerry. Thanks for the info. The biggest surprise of the preseason for me was the play of Brewer. Not future All-Star stuff, but competent looking and perhaps the best player on the team during those games.
Have you asked players/coaches on or off the record whether this is the new & improved Brewer or just a stastistical/preseason blip?
Looking through the injury list of your big men will your lastest recruit Nathan Jawai see any time early on either at centre or Power forward? Did some reserch and he seem to be a very big boy with some good foot work and post moves (Youtube)yet is it enough to see floor time?
Arenal - Do you like Garrett Siler, by any chance?
McFly - “deepest, most sincere respect” for Jerry?
Apparently, a lot has changed from a week ago when you said Jerry was a “disservice” to this message board.
Just as I was beginning to feel like a victim of Jerry’s gross disservices, I’m now wondering if I should now regard him as Yoda of The Twin Cities sports market.
Lots of teams have duplication of talent at specific spots; it’s hardly a crisis for the Wolves at this point. It’s better to have two players at a spot than none. Mostly, the Sessions/Flynn issue is an easy way for the anti-Kahn crowd to stake a claim.
Sessions is a quality player. He’ll find his minutes soon enough.
Jerry
thank you for the response. My friend usually gives me his Sunday paper later in the week so I’ll get a chance to read it.
Did LEN really write that KLove article? It was pretty good 
(not to say he’s not good, because he’s great at baseball, just surprised to see him on a Wolves article)
It did mention Jawai in there which was my next question. how is he fitting in at practice? we don’t have anyone like him in camp so its hard for people to match up with him I’d suspect. The article mentioned he’s working with Laimbeer on post moves.
Arenal - I’ve read up on both Jawai and Siler, and NBA Draft.net (pretty reliable source) has them rated about the same with similar features except Jawai is more athletic. I think they’ll pass on Siler.
Now one thing this team is starting to develop is depth. Point guard is now a position of strength, and they have Al and Love at the 4. Gomes is a solid player at the 3 (sometimes 4) and Brewer is seemingly starting to get it at the 2/3. It would seem the team now is a scoring 2 and a BIG man (5) away from getting it turned around.
I wonder if there is anyway we can get our 1st away from the Clips? this year its top 10 protected (which I am fairly certain they’ll keep, although if they continue to play like they did the last 2 games…) and its unprotected in 2011. Since its unprotected in 2011, they’ll need to make a decent run to make giving it up less painful to give up.
[…] Jerry Zgoda, Star Tribune: "Al Jefferson, feeling better after last week’s flu knocked him down, participated in some of today’s practice at Target Center, but he remains bothered by that sore Achilles tendon. He rode the exercise bike for the final portion of practice and did not scrimmage with his teammates. ‘I have no idea,’ Kurt Rambis said when asked if Jefferson will play in Wednesday’s season opener. ‘His illness is a non issue. His Achilles is what we’re addressing now and we’re helping him work through that. We’ll see how he is tomorrow. That’s how we’ll keep going. We’ll keep evaluating him the following day, keep increasing his activity and see how he handles it.’ Jefferson wasn’t in much of a mood to talk to reporters today, so he didn’t." […]
Jerry, or any poster w/ info: Is it today, Monday, that teams need to firm up their rosters for season? Have we speculated on any additions from other team cuts that could help Wolves? I would think we would be in great position to get first claim.
[…] Jerry Zgoda, Star Tribune: "Al Jefferson, feeling better after last week’s flu knocked him down, participated in some of today’s practice at Target Center, but he remains bothered by that sore Achilles tendon. He rode the exercise bike for the final portion of practice and did not scrimmage with his teammates. ‘I have no idea,’ Kurt Rambis said when asked if Jefferson will play in Wednesday’s season opener. ‘His illness is a non issue. His Achilles is what we’re addressing now and we’re helping him work through that. We’ll see how he is tomorrow. That’s how we’ll keep going. We’ll keep evaluating him the following day, keep increasing his activity and see how he handles it.’ Jefferson wasn’t in much of a mood to talk to reporters today, so he didn’t." […]
Any up date today on how Jefferson’s doing? Will this achilles issue be a problem throughout the season?
When’s Blount getting bought out/released? Will it be today or tomorrow?
It is a bit frustrating they couldn’t get at least something (ie 2nd round pick) for Daniels. they did save quite a bit of dough by lettting him go im sure (9 mill from Songaila, 750K from Brown) minus whatever they paid for him. He actually has some value along with his expiring contract. they might as well buy out Blount now since there isn’t any way you can move a guy like him.
Foo, to each there own.
I give you permission to formulate your own opinion and I promise to continue to be completely uninterested.
Jerry is our watchdog, ready to ponce at the most suitable time. We need to feed him and periodically bath him in the warm waters of appreciation and respect.
But we also need to school him when necessary and insure he follows the fine traditions of a (our) hero canine.
More, for the record, I never accused Jerry personally of being a disservice to his many (me included) admiring board participants.
I merely pointed out that that particular message ran the risk of being a disservice.
the team will be at about 35 mill for 8 players if they pick up Brewer but not Pech for next year. leaves room for Johnson to come maybe?
what about making a trade to the clips for kaman? might be able to pry away our 1st rounder too.
Why would the Wolves spend their cap room on Kaman as opposed to trying to upgrade the wings?
Kaman? are you nuts. we can easily pick up a big in the draft at a much cheaper price and in all likely hood not much worse.
AJ’s achilles will linger, its what happens when one leg is immoble for months on end, they will work him back slowly and jan/feb it won’t be a problem as his body will remember and get back to taking the constant pounding athlete’s tendons/ligaments do. AJ shouldn’t be playing more than 30mpg until at least Xmas and thats if he has no setbacks.
Jawai will be interesting, has height and size which is what we need, just not sure about his IQ and skills. Siler has great IQ and knows how to use his skills–he plays to his strengths and minimizes his weaknesses. He played very well and smart in Vegas. hence i’d take a 1yr min league flier on him.
sean
I meant getting Joe Johnson in FA AND Kaman in a trade. would give us our biggest needs - a legit scoring 2 and a big in the middle.
Arenal
yes he’s expensive, but my goal is to entice LA to give us our pick back by taking on a contract of theirs. I mean who knows, this team might surprise people and actually be out of the bottom 10 worst records.
[…] Nada bueno, quiero decir. Por su parte, Al Jefferson tiene tendinitis en un tendón de Aquiles y es duda para el comienzo de la liga. Malas noticias para un jugador con un largo historial de lesiones. A […]
[…] Injury quick hits: Al Jefferson’s(notes) achilles issues have his status up in the air for the season opener, while Kevin Love(notes) is hoping to come back early from his original […]
So Nathan Jawai working with Laimbeer on post moves. Does this mean they plan on using him and if so how much?
