Yeah, they’ve obviously been improving how they handle these injuries in recent years. That’s what irks me about the list that has names like LaPhonso Ellis on it, whose career was ruined by his achilles injury. How in the world could you compare what happened to Ellis in the 1990s to how Durant would be treated today? It’s absurd.

According to a 2013 research paper published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, seven of the 18 NBA players (38.9%) who sustained major Achilles injuries between 1988 and 2011 did not come back to the league. Those who did return missed an average of 55.9 games the rest of their career, with only eight of the 11 playing a second season.

The few who did stick in the NBA for a while saw their playing time and production dip. ESPN’s SCHOENE projection system, which accounts for age and other factors besides injury that could affect someone’s performance, found that players coming off torn Achilles tendons have performed about 8% worse than projected.

However, there are reasons for optimism. Medical advances over the past decade have upped players’ chances of a successful recovery. Spurs forward Rudy Gay, for example, has enjoyed two of his most efficient seasons since suffering a torn Achilles in January 2017.

a few other notes:

Cousin’s re-hab time…. 357 days
Kobe’s rehab time….. 240 days
Dominique’s rehab time… 9 months.

With KD’s lithe build it is perfectly reasonable he is back playing mid-March.

Side note… according to a podcast I heard yesterday maybe the Lowe Post if GS maxes Durant and resigns Draymond and Klay…. they are on the hook for $230,000,000 in tax per year to the NBA (gulp) that’s a lot of coin even to Silicon Valley guys.

One way he could go is to opt in, then pull a Kawhi, and have his own people take care of his rehab, and go about it very conservatively. Basically take the whole year off, and keep saying “nah, I’m not healthy enough to go, we all remember what happened last time.” Sit out the whole year, which is probably the prudent thing to do anyway. Then hit free agency in 2020.

He owes Golden State nothing. He’d still get a mega max in 2020.

My point is more that the Warriors have nothing to lose re-signing Durant. They are capped anyway and will be forever capped with Klay and Draymond’s new contracts, they have no room to replace Durant with anyone. Even if he’s damaged goods, they might as well keep him to see if he ever recovers. Durant only leaves if he wants to, in my opinion, and obviously it’s possible he wants to, but if he’s sticking to what he said, about maximizing the money he’s getting, then the logical play is to simply stay.

100% agree with this.

Some names that could maybe get it done: Beal, Gordon, Valanciunas, Whiteside… there aren’t many.

So basically an AD trade is very unlikely. A trade to the Celtics before the draft (so they can try to keep Kyrie) seems most likely.

He would actually be an amazing fit next to Zion. Too bad that didn’t happen.