[Celtics] Nikola Vucevic today underwent successful ORIF surgery to stabilize a fracture in his right ring finger.
Looking forward to the 5 part docuseries about him doing finger lifts to get back into game shape
Might be a 6 part if he comes back early
Garza will hold down the fort for a month.
That being said…we need Vooch for the playoffs. Whether people on here want to admit it or not. Love what Garza brings, but his entire offense is just threes or offensive rebounds. You need a big who can do more than that.
I wouldn’t say his entire offense is threes more just working in the post but I agree we’ll need more. He’s basically a worse version of Vuc, solid offensively but weak defensively. Garza plays hard tho and I do like him as our 3rd big
I like Lukas screening better than Vucs.
But either way we had two centers on the roster till recently. This Nick is a good reason why we needed more depth there
I think they’re both bad defenders. Vuc more reliable on defensive rebounding, Garza better at offensive rebounding. I like Garza more on screens and rolling but Vuc has better passing and more reliable interior scoring. Both hit 3s but Vuc’s shot is more respected. Garza fights like all hell for loose balls.
Generally, I actually think they’re pretty even in regular season but I think Vuc’s skills won’t shrink as much in a playoff setting. The passing alone makes him more valuable in that setting.
He’s a great third big, might be best in the league. Paul Reed is probably a little better, but that’s it.
But you see him get a small guy on him on a switch, and the team won’t even look his way. It tells you, they don’t trust him to take advantage of a small guy in the post. In the playoffs, that 100% matters.
Look at the Heat 2023 series. The whole idea of getting KP was that we had zero bigs that could consistently take advantage of smaller guys
Does J-Will count as a third big or nah because both Chet and Hartenstein start a lot of the time?
I think Garza’s ability to mash on the offensive glass could be good enough to punish switches and make his offense valuable in the playoffs. Look at what guys like Steven Adams and Mitchell Robinson have done. Garza’s not quite to their preposterous level (16% offensive rebound percentage vs 20%+) but he has the shooting as a changeup and at least makes his free throws. The problem is entirely on the other end IMO
Yes, but they’re pretty similar impact, although it’s basically flipped. Like Luka’s offensive impact is basically Jaylin’s defensive impact, and then they’re both equally bad on the other side of the ball.
I think Williams has a little more offensive game than that, although he hasn’t shot it great this year. But he had 30 points in a reasonably close game against Detroit a couple weeks ago when most of OKC’s starters were out and he’s had a couple of 10 assist games in his career. He struggles to finish inside but he’s pretty skilled
His DARKO and EPM are very bad offensively. He is a good passer, and that’s basically it. Not an elite offensive rebounder, bad 3 point shooter and almost all of his shots are 3s, not that good from 2, doesn’t get to the rim very often, which means his TS% is low, low usage/volume.
Luka has been insanely good from literally everywhere on the floor (other than the FT% which is just average). I mean everywhere. Insane offensive rebounding numbers, he’s still a solid passer with a good AST:TO, higher volume. Gets to the line more. He’s got like a 10% better TS%.
Yeah, no doubt that Garza is an excellent offensive center, but I think Williams is better offensively than Garza is defensively.
Williams definitely has limitations, but he’s a 37.5% 3 point shooter for his career and a decent passer. His all in one metrics were closer to neutral/slightly negative last season, rather than abysmal like they’ve been this year. That rings a little closer to true for me, but a lot of it will depend how reliable a shooter he ends up being
Yes, but it’s barely. Like we’re splitting hairs.
EPM: Luka +2/-1.7 for +0.3
Jaylin -1.4/+1.9 for +0.5
Yeah, I’m not saying it’s a massive gulf. I just think Williams is a little better than he’s been this year.
In “actual” offensive EPM (so taking into account his whole career) J-Will is -.9 , 56th percentile and I think he has a little upward mobility on that if he shoots like he did in the 24-25 season. I don’t think he cripples a team’s offense like I think Garza does a team’s defense. Although honestly the Celtics have found some lineups that work for him so maybe I’m selling him short
When a small is on Vuc it’s barbecue chicken though and not for us for the opposing team. He gives us some advantages but he also sucks. Is rather Garza get more minutes an play him situationally
You must not have watched Vuc closely these last handful of years. He’s not a better defender than Garza. He walks with cement in his shoes.
No im saying they’re both a similar archetype. Solid offensive skillset but bad defensively. Just saying overall Vuc is a better player than Garza, not saying he’s better defensively specifically
Garza is definitely a better defender than Vuc and I guess I just like how hard he works. Vuc is a really good defensive rebounder and has nice court vision but honestly, even before the injury he seemed pretty underwhelming for a 35 year old who’s never had any success in the playoffs.
Vuc is much better as a post player but Garza is better defensively.
I feel like a third string big that can do that is amazing already
In case anybody is wondering, an ORIF is an open reduction of the fracture with internal fixation (i.e. screws and possibly plates).
I have an internal fixation for Ana de Armas
r/AngryUpvote
Does this mean they’re not just going to tape it up for next game?
I’m a big fan of buddy-strapping. Depending on the person I could even just rub some dirt on it.
Have you considered walking it off?
Fingering it off, in this case.
Oof
Means it was probably an unstable fracture, definitely not something that can be played through.
That it required ORIF is not ideal… I was hoping it’d be a CRIF procedure where they can set the bone and insert pins without incision, which would indicate a cleaner fracture and potentially faster recovery time.. I had CRIF surgery to fix a fractured metacarpal, and pins are nothing recovery wise. They essentially just pull them out with pliers once the bone’s healed (this is a very gross feeling lol but not painful and heals quickly). ORIF might indicate a very messy fracture that required a plate, which might need to be removed later on with another minor surgery (could be done in the off-season unless it’s really bothering him). That said, maybe they just did ORIF because money’s not a factor and they have top tier surgeons and post-op care and saw it as potentially leading to better results, even if not explicitly needed.
Another factor of his recovery will be how his hand or digit is immobilized. Ideally it can be immobilized without the rest of the hand being affected. If he’s in a splint/cast that mostly immobilizes his whole hand for that 3-4 week period though, you’d be surprised how much atrophy and stiffness can occur. Hopefully he’ll be on the bench tomorrow and we can see.
To add to all this, some very relevant info that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is that Vucevic broke and had surgery to fix, from what I can gather, the middle bone of his left index finger in 2017, and missed just under 2 months. I was hopeful at first that he’d return to the floor in this initial 3-4 week timeline. But confirmation that it was a fracture requiring ORIF and the example of his previous timeline, I’d say “reevaluated” is the key term here, and that the 3-4 week timeline is only to evaluate that the fracture is fully healed and isn’t including potential additional weeks of physical therapy.
We don’t fuck around waiting for surgeries 😂
Celtics just not allowed to be whole for a playoff run huh
Looks like he’ll be able to play a few games before the playoffs start. We’ll need Vuc in the playoffs to hit our championship ceiling.
Sucks it’s on his shooting hand too
Damn, that’s a bad fracture. I didn’t even really see it.
Amari Williams will be getting some minutes next month. It’ll be good development time before the playoffs, where hopefully we don’t need to use him.
I had the exact same procedure for my pinky finger about a month ago. I don’t see how Vuc isn’t out for at least 6 weeks, which is the amount of time it takes before you’re allowed to put any sort of weight on your pinky. But who knows, maybe they have ways of managing that injury.
We traded Simons and the (likely) 32nd pick for Vucevic the lemon to miss the first round of the playoffs 💔 (and cap relief to duck the apron I know I know)
https://preview.redd.it/iobzc0yi6ong1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=213a7ae64e02035dd465d6b0ba184db8088ee628
Fake
lmao sure
Also not sure what this does for your point since Vucevic is out for at least a month.
It’s not like Brad traded for a guy who is always hurt who got hurt again. Finger injuries are fluke things, and unfortunately it happened to Vuc.