[Woj] Howard to get second opinion on knee, could miss extended time

This news blows, no other way around it. Yea, DMo and TJones at the C and PF spot the rest of the season with Smith coming off the bench won't be terrible, we will still win some games in the regular season. But in the playoffs, we are toast without Dwight. Absolutely toast. Even if we somehow snatch HCA.

Terrible news.

 

A lot of bigtime players are hurt. Spurs are aged, Durant is hurt, Aldridge is hurt, ZBO just came back while Conley is down, Bogut has issue and Curry will eventually twist his ankle, let Dwight go through his stuff be ready when it matters hurt or not.

 

lol

Him being a doctor he can get more into it but I have had a few MRI's and it is pretty good especially when they used dyes. Also I have arthritis and know that the condition is not reversible.

I have said it here on the forum and will again. Howard can't have bone on bone. Impossible because if he did he would not even be walking at all yet alone playing sports. Again it is impossible he is bone on bone. An MRI should be able to see a lot in his knee.

He does have Osteoarthritis more than likely and the treatments he is undergoing is trying to prolong his career as much as possible. It sounded like to me he tweaked his knee somehow and in his advanced stage of Osteoarthritis it heals slower. I may have been wrong in assuming this but in any case his playing days are coming to an end...sooner than later.

Not sure what he is wanting the 2nd opinion on though as the good doctor explained. Must be something we are not being made privy to.

 

McHale said on 790 yesterday that he hasn't banged knees or anything since returning, which is why they find it so disconcerting.

 

I'll probably will be flamed for asking, but what are the consequences to the Rockets if Dwight's injury is career ending? He gets paid through the end of his contract, but do the Rockets get compensated by an insurance company? Do we still have to carry him in our cap space? Etc. Etc.

 

Same as Yao, insurance picks up tab! and Rox get disabled exception, Bima can say how much but I think it is around 5m.

DD

 

If he's done as in can't even play anymore, then they get some sort of cap exemption for that. I have no idea what the insurance situation is, but I'm pretty sure Dwight gets paid every last penny of his contract.

That's extreme worst case scenario though. His knee would have to be shot to hell for it to be career ending. Even microfracture surgery would still allow him to play again(although his days as a superstar big man would be done).

There are two key indicators of how FUBAR Dwight's knee is. First, his ability to play the rest of the season. If he's done for the year, this is serious. Second, whether he intends to opt out in 2016. If he doesn't, it means he and Fegan know he has no chance of getting a big contract from anyone in which case we know for sure his superstar days are over.

 

If his injury is career ending essentially - will he be able to opt for the additional year?

 

If it's career ending, he'll refuse to opt out that last year. He'd be insane to do otherwise.

That would be crazy if it was that severe though, right? How the hell do we go from fluid buildup in his knee to never being able to play again?

 

Yes, he is insured. If his injury is career ending (extremely unlikely) he could take a medical retirement or the Rockets would receive a disabled player exception and roster spot.

 

Tjones says hi

 

No career ending, Howard has no an injury history like Yao, he will be fine sooner or later, there is no need to be concerned too much right now.

 

IIRC, the exception we received for Yao was the lower of either 50% of the injured player's salary, or the league average (MLE type). I believe Ariza agreed to sign on for the MLE, but we ended up signing him with the DPE.

 

I think you answered why i wouldn't be relieved. Something is wrong. there's no doubt about that. And for months now, they can't solve the problem. the longer a problem persists, the longer it can cause damage.

I understand people prefer anything to season ending surgery...but having him in and out of the line up and games isn't a good thing either. We already saw what happened with Yao. It disrupts on court chemistry. the goal is a ring and I don't think we can win it, whether he ends his season now or hobbles into the playoffs. I don't believe having him back to full strength by playoff time is a realistic outcome.

Yeah, Howard's history is more like Tmac's. No need to worry...

 

Rather find out now that there's 3 months till playoffs than later. Let him chill and rest that damn knee. He will be ready come playoffs.


Think positive, **** suckers.

 

I'm tired of the blight of dwight

 

I agree.

 

Fluid in the knee is an "effusion." So that's probably what the tweets are referring to. It can come from a variety of things. From acute injuries you're thinking ACL, meniscal tears, OCD, bony contusion, etc. But I don't think he had an acute injury. He had aggravation of a pre-existing injury/condition.

I think I've probably mentioned it in another post but he probably has some kind of cartilage issue since he talked about being bone-on-bone. He could have an OCD lesion and is getting opinions on whether or not he needs microfracture. More likely he probably has chondromalacia, which likely happens in a lot of basketball players who've been in the league for a while. In fact, most people over time will have some chondromalacia, which is just wear and tear of the articular cartilage (smooth shiny part at the end of the femur, tibia, and patella). Chondromalacia, when it becomes grade 4 (which is the worst)... you can think of it like bone-on-bone.

When you have chondromalacia, you can do an arthroscopy and clean up the cartilage (aka chondroplasty) but that just shaves the loose pieces off so that you don't propagate the already worn cartilage. You don't "grow" back cartilage. You can try to grow some firbrocartilage (which isn't as good as your native articular cartilage) when you have full thickness loss via microfracture.

It sounds like Dwight had PRP. There have been shown to be some studies that advocate the use of PRP for knee arthritis. You can use it for some other maladies too. As for other injections that McHale talked about, some people use this jelly type thing called viscosupplementation, which the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons have not advocated as effective against osteoarthritis (in contrary, corticosteroid injections aka cortisone have been deemed as an effective tool to use in patients with osteoarthritis). But since it probably won't hurt, I wouldn't be surprised it that'll be used too.

As for 2nd opinion, I'd get one if I were an athlete making ~20 mil a year. Happens all the time. Different practitioners have different protocols and he might feel more comfortable with a treatment plan if multiple people see him for his condition.

In any case, I hope him the best. His defensive presence and rebounding alone make him an extremely valuable part of the Rockets' success.

 

Micro fracture surgery does not necessarily mean his career as a star is over. It depends on how his body responds to being tricked into growing cartledge. It certainly isn't ideal and concerns about his level of effectiveness coming back would be justified, but the level of success varies greatly.

 

Good post. That's pretty much what I can make out of all this.


People have to remember these guys don't always know if what they're saying makes sense. They just repeat what they remember and sometimes get things mixed up or don't really explain it well. Dwight probably heard "similar to bone on bone" or " eventually bone on bone" and ran with "bone on bone."