Spurs’ center Pau Gasol was sidelined with a left foot injury after playing in the team’s first nine games this season. He’s since missed the past 12 games, including tonight’s blowout loss to the Wolves.
San Antonio did not release much information on the condition at the time, but Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News is now reporting that further testing has revealed a stress fracture in the troublesome left foot after Gasol had begun making progress to return to the court.
“He was (back on the court) and then they took him off,” coach Gregg Popovich said today. “We got a second opinion that it was a stress fracture, so they put him back in the (walking) boot.”
Popovich’s above quote was elicited while being interviewed before the team’s game against Minnesota tonight, so it’s unclear whether there will be a further, perhaps more official report, from the Spurs in the near future. For now, there is no timetable for Gasol’s return
A real shame, great player, very much missed by San Antonio, sooo much better than Poeltl or Bertans.
I don’t agree cesc. Spurs get a pass based on how successful they have been over the past two decades, but let’s call it like it is, the Gasol contract extension was a bad move. The decline was there, and evident, yet so some reason they had Gasol opt out of the final year of his deal to sign a longer term contract.
When I heard that, I thought “ok, so keep Gasol a couple of extra years at a lower AAV, not the worst thing”. Low and behold though, they add two years on top of the one he backed out of at only slightly less than what that last contract was at.
I have always appreciated the Spurs franchise, and there players, loyalty to each other. That said, these last couple of years have shown that the “Spurs way” doesn’t work any longer. Signing a mid-range shooting ISO big in LMA as the game continued to elvolve out to the three point line didn’t make a lot of sense. To compound that, Aldridge did not want to play Spurs basketball and made that well known. When the Spurs resigned him, they may have been better letting him walk.
I don’t like the way Leonard, and more specifically his advisors, handled last year. That said, the Spurs didn’t look very Spursy throughout the whole ordeal. Then, when they do trade him, instead of prioritizing youth to build around in the deal, they take back the LMA of shooting guards as the key piece of the deal. Now, they have two mid-range shooting ISO players who don’t play much defense.
Everything is just discombobulated in San Antonio right now. Move on from Parker to Murray (right choice) to start getting younger, but then extend Gasol and add DeRozan to attempt to be a playoff team now. Yes, the injury bug has been nasty to start the year, but even healthy and performing at a high level, this was only going to be a middle of the road playoff team, but not a serious contender for a title. Instead of understanding this would be the case and starting a true youth movement, they add a long term hard to move contract in DeRozan, a guy who has proven time and again he can not lift a team in the playoffs. LMA’s deal is shorter, but it’s still an albatross around the neck of a team that sorely needs a rebuild. They’ll be able to get out of a good portion of Gasol’s money next year with a buyout, but having any money owed to him at all next year, much less this one was a mistake. Rudy Gay has only escaped my rant to this point based solely on being a one year deal, and playing a different game than we have seen from him in the past.
The Spurs are not a playoff team this year (I admit that I originally thought they would be), and carry a payroll of $108M into next year. In New York, they would call this normal. In San Antonio though, to avoid this being a long term downfall, they have to abandon what made them successful in the past and realize the current game and player do not fit with their tradition.
Accurate. I thought it was funny that media since the Spurs can do no wrong were applauded in their return for Kawhi. Raps won that trade. They sent DeRozan to get out that contract more than anything. Wouldn’t be surprised they trade Aldridge at the deadline out East.
Pop don’t want to end his career as a head coach with a rebuild.
I cannot agree with tanking for franchise that has been winning and suffered no great overall loss.
Note that Gasol is a fine 3pt shooter, hitting over 50% in the last 5 years & 326 attempts.
Aldridge responded to his extension with an allstar year.
Leonard was the betrayer. I think they got the best deal? They got basically 2 firsts incl. Poeltl also.
It’s true a LMA/Derozan duo for leadership is not optimal.
Losing Leonard, Dedmon & JonSimmons did not seem to hurt that much last year, but this year, winning seems to have followed Kyle Anderson…
Get a life Greg
Time to call it a day, Pau