Amir's ankle, the raptors biggest worry

[ReubenJRD]

I'm having a hard time thinking about Amir and his ankles. He impressed me on opening night, the other six games? He's straight up been awful, and accordingly because of his ankles.

I think he needs to come off the bench, that's the change I would make. Besides, Patterson is a terrific post-defender as well, and is a big body despite losing length and height. Offensively he stretches the floor, and is constantly moving. Bold move, but at this point, I'd rather have him play most games while having lowered minutes and coming off the bench than missing half the season as a starter, and coming into play-offs iffy. We aren't that type of team that can rest players, well, we aren't there yet.

[charlesnba23]

Would you rather bring back Amir or sign Millsap (summer 2015)?

[enlightenment]

Amir )':

I want a health fairy to just fix his ankles. He is the core of this Raptors team when healthy. I dunno if we can keep a pair of broken ankles on the team tho... Its so sad..........

[ezz_bee]

I actually hope Amir sits out extended stretches in the regular season (and would be fine with some healthy scratch we es). He is the only player we have right now who is a good help defender. I think we need less Tyler and more Steisma or Bebe. (Hopefully Bebe).

[ezz_bee]

Starting line-up next time we play Philly... at least for the first 6 minutes or so

Lowry
Ross
Bruno
Fields
Bebe

[Scraptor]

Didn't Amir skip surgery this summer because he was advised that it wasn't required?

I haven't found a definitive answer, which is why I was hoping one of our many media people would ask the question.

Johnson has decided against off-season surgery on his ankle and will try to strengthen it through exercise and rehabilitation. It might be a gamble given his penchant for tweaking it

All the quotes I found were ones like this, where it sounded like Amir had a choice and chose rehab over surgery. But the P3 stuff clearly wasn't the solution if he's still wonky. I know he's probably concerned about his next contract but I think he'll be better off with a strong playoff showing than rolling the dice with questionable ankles all year.

[ezz_bee]

More cause for worry with Amir's ankles...

From Zach Lowe at Grantland

A few other random notes on that SportVU ball-screen data:

• Among rotation players, Amir Johnson set the most screens last season — about 32 per 36 minutes. He’s down to about 23 this season, just 49th in the league. The Raptors are still a pick-and-roll-heavy team, and though they’re earning a bunch more free throws this season, they don’t appear to have redesigned their offense in a way that would generate such a big change. Given Johnson’s ankle issues, this is worth monitoring.

LINK

[JawsGT]

I'm having a hard time thinking about Amir and his ankles. He impressed me on opening night, the other six games? He's straight up been awful, and accordingly because of his ankles.

I think he needs to come off the bench, that's the change I would make. Besides, Patterson is a terrific post-defender as well, and is a big body despite losing length and height. Offensively he stretches the floor, and is constantly moving. Bold move, but at this point, I'd rather have him play most games while having lowered minutes and coming off the bench than missing half the season as a starter, and coming into play-offs iffy. We aren't that type of team that can rest players, well, we aren't there yet.

I gotta disagree with you man. I wouldn't actually mind having Amir come off the bench, but not in favour of Patterson. He isn't that great a defender. One on one he may be ok, but as a help defender he is nowhere near Amir's level, bad ankles or not. Plus, Amir is a much better screener and finisher at the rim IMO. And even if that switch was made, I feel Amir would still get as many minutes as he does now, so I'm not sure that would ultimately help his ankles. Again, options are limited for upgrading the PF spot, and I'm sure most of us would have a very different opinion on the matter if the offence was better at integrating the bigs, especially off the PnR. This team's O is pick and screen heavy, so it's beyond me why we don't utilize the bigs more often.