Fred VanVleet reveals on his podcast that his 2025 pre season knee injury was worse than previously reported: “What was probably never disclosed was, I did ACL and both meniscus, so my whole knee exploded…POW”
What baffles me is that the Rockets knew they had no FVV since Sep before the season started and still refused to go out and get a PG.
Then just spent the whole season having the fans saying “damn, if only we had FVV (and Stevo).”
With Garland, Harden, Young, LaMelo all being available post FVV knee injury they should have gone for one of them
Honestly at the deadline I thought they should bark up the bulls tree and try and get Coby White if nothing else
I remember after one of the post game threads when the Bulls-Rockets played before the deadline. Some of their fans were saying: “Ayo/Tre gonna be in Houston soon”.
Then they did nothing at the deadline.
The amount of point guards the Bulls offloaded.. đ
We got so many seconds you wouldn’t believe it
Wolves got Ayo for 4 second round picks and a point guard who’s going to be playing in China in a couple years. The Rockets have an absolute treasure trove of assets and did nothing, inexplicable.
dont disrespect leonard miller
They absolutely couldâve gotten Ayo.
The number of guards that were traded last season is pretty impressive. For a team that needed perimeter play, shooting, and ballhandling, I’m amazed they didn’t go after one or two of these guys while trades were being written up.
Guards involved in in-season trades: CJ, Trae, Vit Krecji, Schröder, Vince Williams, Coby White, Ayo, Collin Sexton, Tyus Jones, James Harden, Garland, McCain, Gabe Vincent, Kennard, Anfernee Simons, Dillingham, Alvarado, Exum, Hardy, D’Lo.
None of those guys get us past OKC in the second round
We had no effective way to match contracts with all those guys considering Fred had a no-trade clause, there was no real to get a upper tier PG without gutting our team.
Trade some of your actual assets with value lmao
Why? To turn a first round exit into a second round exit?
Why even watch the games if you have this attitude
The actual answer is I wanted to force Ime Udoka to play our top-3 drafted point guard instead of Coby White or Ayo Desounmo. And I had a much better time watching this team that needs to experience growing pains lose in the first round than I would have had watching Coby White lose in the second round.
do you think sheppard has that potential as a primary ballhandler/playmaker? genuine question. iâm not sure ive seen that much of that in his game, but iâm sure youâve watched the rockets more than me
I personally think he does.
If he doesn’t we need to trade him before anyone else figures that out and he still has value, because being a 6’1” Grayson Allen isn’t going to work in this league long term.
I agree but there is still a lack of ball handling even with Sheppard on the floor. Let alone when he is off
If you think anything less than a title isnât worth it, then I have awful news for you about the Rockets under Tillman Fertitta.
Hey if you’re going to join me on the “James Harden is an all time great and better than a lot of #1 options who won titles” train even though he came up short on the playoffs against the best team of all time, happy to have you on board
What the hell are you talking about
Hell, they could’ve traded for Ja too
Should’ve just asked us for Tre Jones imo
Even if you take out the big names they didn’t even go after someone who wouldn’t cost much to to give them 15 to 20 minutes a night
I had no idea lamelo was available. I still can’t believe that shit. I’m so god damn excited for this looney toon.
You should be, and don’t let some random poster with a Warriors flair that’s never seen him play tell you otherwise.
I watched a 20 minute clip of his highlights from last season, and just smiled the whole time. I haven’t been this excited for a season in a long, long time.Â
I’m sad about Naz, but I feel like you guys are really working around shaking up your culture, and I think he’s the perfect man for that. Soft spoken, hard working, and incredibly talented as a surprisingly mobile sharpshooter. He’ll fit in right away, and he’s proven to be an unselfish guy that just wants to play well, and win.
Take care of the guy, dude, you got a great one.
Dude, Ayo went for 2nd round picks!!! Just 2nd rounders!!! I am legit furious that Rob Pelinka didnât get Ayo, that guy is so damn good and anyone could have had him.
Ayo Dossumu could’ve been good too
even just getting some veteran dirt cheap like Tyus Jones or DLo would show that they were trying last season.
They didn’t want to give up any of their young core nor did they want to empty the pick chest
Definitely shouldâve traded for Trae considering how little he got traded for but I guess Rockets didnât wanna give him the max like Trae probably demanded in any trades
Lmao yeah Garland gonna stop them from getting bounced in the first round by Jake Laravia and Deandre Ayton. If they just had Garland everything would be alrightÂ
There’s a world where their season looks completely different if they just take a chance on someone serviceable. There’s arguments for not doing anything but KD is old and windows can close fast
But that’s exactly the point.. KD isn’t getting younger and you gotta take adv of having him on the team while he’s there.
Maybe if they had a serviceable PG he wouldn’t be on his burner.
Yea we’re saying the same thing I think lol
Yeah I’m just agreeing with you đ€. Just crazy they ran the whole season without a proper PG
… this is victim blaming (I am only half joking)
There is no valid argument for not doing anything especially with this CBA. They have a pretty good core of players but next year will have to back the truck up for Amen which they truly have to do but will kill their chance at depth until KD comes off the books but you arenât replacing him with similar value.Â
The argument they made was basically âweâre not accelerating the timeline for a 37 year-old mercenaryâ. Take that how you will.
Definitely one of the more dumbfounding choices a team has made. You bring in KD presumably to give yourself a real shot at competing, you see how ass the offense is, like what was management thinking.
Look man it was a catchy line we were fed :(
And Harden has been trying to throw himself at Houston since Christmas 2022.
One of the biggest malpractices Iâve seen in a long time , our gm is the teamâs former lawyer and with moves like that proves why heâs not built to be a general manager.. Heâs a good negotiator with contracts but a horrible gm
I think seeing how the team played without FVV made them realize that their young core doesnât actually have the juice and thereâs no reason to panic move for a pg. Is there a single young player on the rockets anyone felt was better at the end of the season compared to the start?
Rockets FO really truly believes in this mid ass “young core”, LMAO
My guess is they looked at the landscape, figured they couldn’t get a championship caliber PG, and decided to just treat this as a development year where KD could lead them for a deep playoff run that would give their guys real reps
They made a huge gamble hoping either Amen or Reed developed into a serviceable PG. Which is strange, because they tried the same approach with KPJ and learned nothing from that situation.
Everybody could see it too, which is weird. Like, r/nba is not a bastion of basketball wisdom, but if even we could see that problem, how the hell did they not?
They really could’ve traded us for any of our guards not named Giddey and be better for it.
Nah heâs not coming back better. He needs 110% of his speed, twitch, explosion to be effective at his size. He plays tough too and like heâs a larger player.
Absolutely nothing happens if you are wrong.
No he’s not wrong. Meniscus at his size and age will sloooow him down. He still gonna be a good shooter though.
He still gonna be a good shooter though.
You sure about that? The last season he played he tanked my fantasy basketball team with his atrocious FG%: 37.8%. That’s not his 3P%, that was his overall percentage.
Lol sorry about your fantasy haha. I mean he was reliable as a 3pt shooter at least he stepped up from time to time. We’ll see hopefully he’ll be able to come back in whatever shape.
people always say this about shooting holding up and itâs never true. Less lift, less separation off the dribble, less strength late in games. It adds up. As a late-career Mike Conley enjoyer I know all to well
same with klay, averaging about 39% from three over the past 5 years since returning from injury. obviously not bad, but not nearly as elite as he once was, and thatâs the skill a lot of people assumed heâd hang onto even when he was washed washed.
in klayâs situation, i do think part of it is just mental. i watched him a good bit on the warriors post injury and he bricked A LOT of open looks that should have been easy money for him even being a step slow. he gets in his head a lot. but there definitely is an element to him not getting the same separation off cuts or being able to get into shooting stance with the same fluidity as he did 10 years ago.
I really wanna know what yall are smoking when it comes to FVV.
Losing regardless lmao
This is why I think Kyrie will come back & still be okay for a few years because he just tore his ACL, no meniscus or any other ligaments while taking 1y 7m to heal.
He’s gonna save the rockets tho
The Rockets are so screwed
Would you be interested in NBA finalist and OKC slayer DeâAaron Fox
OKC and Spurs slayer DeâAaron Fox
Knicks 6th man D Fox
Former Kings legend Deaaronous Foxxus
I should beat your ass for even saying this
I mean if you had Fox, you probably would have won the first round against Lakers.
In the short term yes but in the long term I think Reed will be a good starter.
Some other notes he said about the injury
Hollywood never shows you the real medical experience because itâs a drag. Car accidents end up in maimings, not explosions, surgery hurts like hell, thatâs why they prescribe Vicodin, recovery takes forever, if itâs even possible. Yet itâs the lived in experience for everyone older than 40, pretty much.
Currently going through an ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair. The first few weeks really suck. I was not prepared for the total loss of independence.
The worst part is the first part, keep up the fight! You’ll beat it.
it gets better bro. I had the same a few years back. one day at a time.
You will get through this. Once the physical hurdles are cleared, work on the mental hurdles. You got this
Yet itâs the lived in experience for everyone older than 40, pretty much.
can you explain this
If you make it to 50 without surgery, God bless you. Even then, colonoscopy, dental work, physical therapy, etc. It is not all equally terrible but a bitter taste of aging is practically guaranteed.
Idk about that, plenty of very healthy people at 50. Maybe not in the US
when playing sports or in general?
Sounds like something an edgy teenager would say tbh lol
Yeah when the Kobe crash happened and they were talking about recovering the bodies in my mind all the bodies were intact. Then I saw the autopsy report and it scarred me.
Same thing with me and 9⁄11. I was 3 weeks old when it happened, it had literally been the thing my friends joked about for years.
Then I heard the cockpit recordings from flight 93. Didn’t sleep for a fucking week.
Did you know the hijackers we’re so scared on that plane, when the passengers fought back that they started praying in the cockpit? They we’re so terrified at the Americans fighting back, they intentionally crashed, just to escape the terror.
It was both the most horrible thing I’ve ever read and heard and made me prouder than I’ve ever been. I wept, equally I was so proud for what they did, what terrorists never could do, they died so others could live.
Sorry your Kobe story was just very similar to how I found the hidden story about 9⁄11. The sacrifice of thousands so that millions could live.
The courage in each person is truly incredible. Jimmy V said it best, ordinary people do extraordinary things everyday.
and seems he then proceeded to run and shoot on that same knee days after “his knee had swollen âas big as a basketball”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets/article/fred-vanvleet-acl-rehab-update-podcast-22322307.php?link_source=ta_thread_link&taid=6a3fd6562813c40001615cbd&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social
VanVleet said he went to his room to take a nap and when he woke up, his knee had swollen âas big as a basketball.â When the swelling went down after a couple days, VanVleet was able to get an MRI, and when those results delivered bad news, he still was convinced someone had messed up and the doctors were looking at the wrong MRI scans. âI said, ‘No, that ainât mine. No. I didnât (tear my ACL).’ Theyâre like, ‘You did, bruh. You tore your ACL,‘â VanVleet said. âI said no, so Iâm arguing. I did that for like three days.â VanVleet said he had so thoroughly convinced himself that he didnât actually tear his ACL that when he was supposed to meet the doctor at the gym the next morning, he actually showed up at 2 a.m. to run and shoot and ended up spending the night at the facility before his doctorâs appointment
VanVleet said he went to his room to take a nap and when he woke up, his knee had swollen âas big as a basketball.â
When the swelling went down after a couple days, VanVleet was able to get an MRI, and when those results delivered bad news, he still was convinced someone had messed up and the doctors were looking at the wrong MRI scans.
âI said, ‘No, that ainât mine. No. I didnât (tear my ACL).’ Theyâre like, ‘You did, bruh. You tore your ACL,‘â VanVleet said. âI said no, so Iâm arguing. I did that for like three days.â
VanVleet said he had so thoroughly convinced himself that he didnât actually tear his ACL that when he was supposed to meet the doctor at the gym the next morning, he actually showed up at 2 a.m. to run and shoot and ended up spending the night at the facility before his doctorâs appointment
i understand instances like Rondo or LaVine playing out a game on a torn knee because it happens during the game. you’re not gonna know immediately/do a Lachman test/get an MRI
but for a player to get hurt. have their knee swell up that much. have to wait days until the swelling goes away. and still run and shoot on it afterwards (hopefully he didnt cut/pivot as he did this, because who knows if he actually ended up tearing his meniscus during this workout).
thats on the player. thats on his agent. and thats on the team medical for either not knowing, or not shutting him down.
wait acl and both meniscus all at once?
Bruh is he revealing this to not get traded đ
He has a defacto NTC so he can’t be traded unless he agrees to it
I believe that âde facto no trade clauseâ only applies in the first year of his extension
Chat gpt thinks heâs trade eligible now that heâs in his final year lol
And still didn’t go out and get another point guard. wtf
Yaâll want a point guard? We have a fewÂ
KD is about to go full LoL player on his team.
This happens ~70% of the time with ACL tears, if you tear your ACL, it is more likely than not you tear a meniscus as well. No idea why this is news.
The real concern is when you have the triple tear and a year later say you’re going to the Commanders.
How often do both menisci tear?
Did mine. Doc said itâs more rare to not have damage to menisci. Slightly lengthens recovery period by a few months, but because itâs so common, that time is included in the usual ACL recovery estimate. Does slightly increase risk of injury. But overall, nothing burger.
Got it, thanks for sharing your experience
This guyâs experience youâll listen to but the other guy saying the exact same thing you argue with and make up numbers? Why behave this way, lmao
Also common, doesnât really impact the recovery time⊠the meniscus get repaired during the same procedure
When you say common, do you have a ballpark number similar to that 70% figure you gave earlier?
google it yourself if youâre so curious dude, just know it is very common and doesnât really impact timeline or outcome (source, tore ACL and both meniscus).
Only commenting because people on this thread are reacting like this is some kind of devastating news that changes anything, it doesnât.
I think it probably sounds worse than it is for most people, but if you’re asking me to google it I didn’t find evidence that your characterization of it is accurate either. Tearing the meniscus is worse than not tearing it and lengthens the recovery time. And looking up 3 studies, that all cited different numbers, 8%, 20% and 26%. So however you look at it, it’s more common to not tear any of the meniscus than it is to tear both.
You just are wrong, idk if youâre making it up or what but what youâre saying is factually incorrect. 50% is the low end, youâre citing 8%?
https://www.jeremyburnhammd.com/acl-meniscus-surgery/
I feel like you’ve lost track of what’s been discussed.
You gave a number (that’s inconsistent with the number in this link, which says 50-60%, which is not a big deal but feels hypocritical when accusing someone else of making up numbers) that’s for how often one of the meniscus is torn and I asked how often both menisci are torn. Here are two studies, so not just websites a doctor is using to advertise their services
Even your link, which doesn’t really discuss dual tears, says this
ACL and meniscus injuries frequently occur together, and this combination requires a more nuanced surgical and rehabilitation approach… Yes, combined injury repair takes more time. Yes, the rehabilitation timeline is longer.
As well as discusses that there are different types of tears and treatments which adds another level of variance to how serious the injury and treatment can be
I never said it is as common, I said it is common. Stop being a dickhead, youâve gotten this answer from multiple people, not sure why you cannot accept it.
Hey man, I genuinely was not trying to pick a fight with you. I specifically wanted to disambiguate what you meant by “common” by asking for a number and you’re the one who decided to be rude and just double down and make stuff up
Tearing the meniscus is worse than not tearing
Breaking news
Partial small meniscus tears though don’t always require surgery. Full tear reconstruction take significantly more time to heal than a partial tear that requires surgery but not necessarily more than an ACL reconstruction.
nice to know Stones punted the season because he expects Fred to come back as good if not stronger than previous years, good luck with that đ
I was wondering what was taking long.
Kinda curious how good theyâd be if they had drafted castle over reed in 2024
Another guard who can’t shoot, to go alongside our current point guard who can’t shoot, our shooting guards who can’t shoot, and our Amen Thompson who can’t shoot? We’d be even worse
you forgot your sengun who pretends he can shoot but canât really
yâallâs front office needs to start ordering prospects by ft% and just picking based on that because they have some promising young guys but theyâre drafting like itâs 2002
Well I was limiting myself to backcourt players. If we want to expand, we also have a Jaesean Tate who can’t shoot and a Dorian Finney Smith who can’t shoot.
To me, rockets were doing really good with FFV when he was with Rockets than KD was in Rockets. They need a good PG
rockets knew this and decided to pass on the many guards available during the season, crazy
Most ACL tears include meniscus tears.
Hate to say it but this is the best Ja Morant destination if FVVâs knee is this cooked.
He peaked and cashed in at the perfect time it seems. Even if his career takes a nosedive because of this at least he’ll eventually retire with over $200 million in career earnings.
This is why I’ll never fault any pro athlete for chasing the money whenever they have the opportunity to.
For sure this
I always laugh when Homer fans are like âwhy didnât he stay w us? It was only $4 mil Moreâ!
Itâs like broâŠ.ya \(20 vs \)24 million may not seem like a significant pay raise
But thatâs millions extra. Can start a charity, buy your cousins houses, build a hospital, etc. I think things like that matter to most guys more than, say, being on a playoff team
100%. For most athletes loyalty isn’t paying the bills when they’re 55 and retired, lol. Make as much money as you can and try to leave the game with your body as intact as possible.
100%
it’s like the rockets management & ownership want their fans to abandon the team.
Sounds like Howard Dean giving the diagnosis
Why does everyone have a podcast now
that’s brutal. acl on its own is rough for a smaller guard, but both meniscus too? surprised he was even walking normally after that. explains why he looked a step slow last season
I had the same tears. I was walking normally after the injury and thought it was just a sprain. When the MRI results came back I was in shock.
UhhâŠthis sounds like a career-ending injury. This honestly sounds like an injury that can fuck you up for years
It might be but only because this is happening to an aging 5’11 guard. What FVV is describing isn’t exactly uncommon for an ACL and players come back from it.
But as we see from guards his size and shorter, once you lose a step, it’s over fast. Even without a major knee injury, a 32-year-old FVV is already approaching the end.
Ronaldo R9 vibes
man that’s a brutal combo for any guard… acl + both meniscus at the same time? i know fvv isn’t the most athletic guard but that quickness is gonna take a hit. wonder how the rockets handle his mins when he’s back
Will he play again
It sounds like career-ending.
Basketball Gods really hate KD that his teammates catching strays
Why go after KD if you weren’t ready to go all in on a title?
JA being a đ becomes more realistic by the minute
We could have had Lamelo.
Man its tough for undersized guards. Lose half a step due to injury, and no one takes you. Happened to AI, IT etc.. way way better players than FVV
Damn so this why 520 been sayin the rockets need a pgâŠ
I’d be glad if he manages to return for the playoffs
Oh wow, he might be done done.
I dont know why you would ever disclose this information.
As if teams don’t have medical staff and rigorous checks at trades.
Rockets are cooked lol
Karma for going around saying to fornicate Pop.
come home and bench ride king, rockets can have IQ, would be a good chance to shave off IQ’s contract and get some coach for sheed
This is an incredibly ridiculous suggestion.