Link ___________________________________________________ Injury to Taylor not serious Rockets forward will miss 3 to 4 weeks with shoulder sprain By BRIAN McTAGGART Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle GALVESTON -- The Rockets breathed a sigh of relief Sunday when tests on the left shoulder of Maurice Taylor revealed the power forward suffered no structural damage from the dislocation he suffered Saturday. Taylor, who injured his shoulder when he collided with teammate Peter Cornell during practice, will miss three to four weeks. Taylor hopes to return for the Rockets' regular-season opener Oct. 30 against Denver at Toyota Center. "We're happy it's not going to require surgery," coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We're just going to ask him to keep in shape and work as diligently as possible." The 6-9 Taylor has been hampered by injuries in recent seasons, tearing his right Achilles' tendon in September 2001 and missing the entire 2001-2002 season. He suffered Achilles' tendon and ankle problems during last year's camp. "The only thing I could think about was being out again," Taylor said. "I really couldn't sleep last night because I didn't know what was wrong or if it was going to be something major. We got some good news (Sunday), and I feel really good about it." The injury occurred when Taylor collided with Cornell while the two were running in opposite directions during a drill. Taylor's left arm got caught in an awkward position, injuring the shoulder. Taylor wore ice on his shoulder at training camp Sunday, but that didn't stop him from shooting one-handed free throws. "It's my left hand, so I don't feel like I need that anyway," he said jokingly. "The rehab process will be a lot quicker because it's my left hand. Hopefully it will be a fast process and I can get back quicker than I thought." Taylor, 26, who put himself through a rigorous offseason workout regimen and reported to camp in the best shape of his career, will focus on staying in shape until he's ready to hit the court. "Once the stiffness gets out of my shoulder I'm going to do a lot of weightlifting," he said. "If I can get back in two weeks, I'm not going to fall out of shape. Two weeks in the preseason is nothing as opposed to three to six weeks if I had to do surgery." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not great news, but it could have been worse....I am interested to see how the new "in shape" Mo looks and plays. DD
update oft repeated, (still, thanks for the link/story) but -- my question is: if the bump was as incidental as described resulting in the shoulder separation then what can Mo's upside prognosis really be?
Hopefully it was a freak thing like they said...sometimes a simple wrong angle can do more damage then a heavy hit. DD
Man, I really like what I just heard, his left arm was hurt so he practiced one hand freethrows with his right. There's a lot of things you can say about his him but he aint lazy like so many of the people on this board suggested. His second year with us he was in great shape coming into camp before he got hurt, and last year he just came back from rehab. I was real happy with him when we signed him (even the second time with the real salary added in). He's only 26, give him a couple of more years and some luck, he can turn out to be pretty decent. Also, I agree that he isn't the best rebounder but looking at how he went after some of those offense rebounds last season really impressed me. Look at the following comparison of offensive reb/48 min last year with some of the other PF in the league. SAR 2.77 Rasheed Wallace 1.98 Kenyon Martin 2.95 Juwan Howard 3.24 Paul Gasol 3.066 MoT 3.26 Honestly to me offensive rebound/48 min is a lot more telling in how hard a player works on rebounding. Especially in the case of the Rox, where we have a Francis, Yao and at some point last year Cato cleaning the boards on the other end. While MoT isn't no Ben Wallace or Elton Brand, he is no longer a slouch in my opionion.
That's what happened to my knee. I was running and came to a hard stop.. my knee kept going. Fractured patella. No one even hit me. It was just that freaky exact wrong combination of forces meeting up.
If I can pick a Rocket to go out with, I¡¯d take Mo T. He is the most handsome guy on the team. Does anyone want to initiate a poll?
