Re: Casspi's Poodelish performance thus far
Having gone mental my fair share of times during a game, i can tell when a player has fallen into the deep end and Omri is quite locked in mental anguish right now. That being said, i agree with what some others are saying in terms of conditioning as his lower half (his legs) don't seem to be right. He almost seems to be laboring a bit when he runs and he always had been pretty fluid on all of that. I think he isn't letting on how much his knee's are bothering him because he just wants to see if he can play through this mental stuff and showcase his skills even when NOT at full strength.
At this point though, keep on starting him. Gee is playing well off the bench and we are gaining chemistry. No need to toss Casspi further down the rabbit hole....
Solid post.
Now some perspective from someone who has had 2 knee injuries, 1 major and 1 current minor one. (Whether that makes any difference to you as a reader is your call). Lastnight was the first game I watched, but I could tell right away that Omri isn't going to be making an impact for the team until next year at the earliest.
But you're getting very warm with your comments above. Of course he's having mental issues...anyone that thinks that it's that alone has never had to deal with a weight-bearing joint injury... but those issues are directly from the knee issues- his core and knees aren't working together to bear his weight yet, let alone have any push-off. This is a guy that's been a leaper his whole career, and has been an aggressive rebounder and on-man defender. He isn't doing
any of that right now, he's pretty much just camping behind the 3pt line on the R side. It's his last viable skill that is any sort of threat. He hit one lastnight- they're basically prayer shots- awful form, but he got it to go down. Tell you the truth, his legs look better than I thought they would from hearing everyone's comments- I say that because he's not "high-stepping". It's just the breakdown between his ab core and his knees. It'll take a while to build that back up.
I'm amazed that he's playing through it- talk about mental toughness, OMG. The truth is you
will heal faster by playing through it, but it's *very* risky due to reinjury. I cringe every time he comes down in the middle of a pile of legs, because 1 wrong step on another guy's leg and it could be your career. Ask Tom Gugliotta. Luckily Omri has youth on his side.
So I pretty much agree with Lum here on still starting him. But I would keep him at no more than 15 MPG- there's no rehab benefit to playing him 25 minutes- just more exposed risk. If, God willing, all goes right he'll end up on the same trajectory coming out of the injury next year as our young core.
But don't say I didn't warn you if he goes down.
