Not one to admire for his athleticism but rather his skill set that superposed it, Blazers guard Brandon Roy faces not one, but two knee surgeries. It was the final blow to the roughest patch of his young career that stretches back to the end of last season.
And the more you think about it, Roy’s path is becoming eerily similar to the career of Vince Carter, who quite conversely to Roy was known mostly for his vertically-emphatic style. Both Carter and Roy provided a face to an NBA team without one. And both saw their injuries cripple them just as they had put their teams into the discussion of perennial playoff contender.
“I’m trying to do the best thing I can to get back on the floor,” Roy said in a statement. “We’ve been able to get a number of different opinions and it’s something we’ve decided.”
Carter, whose enigmatic career consisted of unreal aerial assaults mixed with criticisms of being soft, became the face of the Toronto Raptors franchise. He put Canada on the NBA map as one of the league’s most recognized faces while playing for a not-yet successful NBA franchise. Then he got hurt, never the same player when he went to New Jersey, Orlando and now Phoenix.
Roy, the face of the Trail Blazers, had noticeably less agility and explosiveness leading up to his decision to get the duel-surgeries. Down from his 19.9-point and 4.9-assist career averages, the Blazer guard was averaging 16.6 points and 3.3 assists per game this year — not bad numbers. Perhaps he played off how badly his knees are damaged so well for the same reason he became an All-Star talent in the NBA. Never the fastest nor the highest flier, Roy rose to success because of his craftiness and smarts.
But those traits aren’t enough to stop the inevitable demons of bad knees; Roy has admitted he has little cartilage left in either. According to The Oregonian, the arthroscopic surgeries will smooth out his knees and put his total knee surgeries at six.
And it looks like Portland realizes they may never again see the Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy. What they can hope for is that he recovers enough, as the creaky-kneed Carter has, to remain a viable role player.
Said Blazers general manager Rich Cho to The Oregonian: “This is really a temporary fix. Nothing is permanent. And it might not help. We have to try it and see how he feels.”
What do you think will happen to Brandon Roy?
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