Kyle Lowry's Elbow Injury - to rest, or not to rest...

[JWash]

Nobody has ever argued that the injury isn't bothering him. Thats clear from the tennis ball protruding from it. That doesn't mean that the teams decision for him to play through it for now is incorrect.

The reason for him to play is that its the decision made by the team who has an assortment of trained physicians who should be able to correctly evaluate the risks and benefits as well as the best way to deal with the problem moving forwards. How and why they came to the conclusion they have could be due to any number of factors.

I refuse to believe that the team is taking the caveman approach that many are insinuating they are here. "Oh... Lowry strong... Lowry brave, injury no hurt skinny kyle, skinny Kyle play, he play long." There must be some logical contributing factor to the approach.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

[JWash]

Saying rest can only be a good thing is just flat wrong. Let me give you one scenario. The doctors have evaluated the situation and determined that even by resting the problem is not going to go away come playoff time. In that case resting is going to do nothing whereas playing can allow lowry to get used to, adjust to and learn to compensate for the injury. Just one example.. People keep trying to paint this as black and white when it's absolutely not.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

[Axel]

Even if Lowry wasn't visibly hurt, now would be a good opportunity to give him a bit of rest before the playoffs anyway. The injury just makes it even more of the right call.

[LJ2]

It's about two weeks until playoffs. They were never going to rest him for the full time and allow him to get rusty. I expect a decrease in minutes or being off something like every other game. Rest is a must at this point.

[Axel]

It's about two weeks until playoffs. They were never going to rest him for the full time and allow him to get rusty. I expect a decrease in minutes or being off something like every other game. Rest is a must at this point.

They could shut him down for the next week, he'd miss just 3 games and still return for 5 games before the playoffs. Or shut him down for 10 days and play the final 3 games. Rest is more concerning than rust.

[LJ2]

They will I think come up with some combination of days off for both he and DeMar. If Carroll is returning for the playoffs I don't think they will have time to play him with the starters, but I don't see that as a concern. They will likely bring him off the bench anyways.

[Just Is]

It's about two weeks until playoffs. They were never going to rest him for the full time and allow him to get rusty. I expect a decrease in minutes or being off something like every other game. Rest is a must at this point.

They've been talking about decreasing Lowry's minutes for literally the entire season and it's only gone up.

Why would it go down now? Just because he's hurt? Given the time of the official injury, his minutes per game actually increased to the MOST IN THE LEAGUE. That's not hyperbole. That's what actually happened.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

You don't recall? How he started the season playing way more minutes than he ever has before, missed time with PF (like a week...), came back and played career high minutes right away (again), then injured his knee from compensating for the PF (which was still there) and again missed time. Then was brought back, clearly still hurting, until he was finally shut down and had surgery.

I have no issues with the way they've approached it since the surgery. Prior to that it was a mess.

The bold is just one of the concerns I have with Lowry trying to play through an elbow injury that forces him to alter his shooting mechanics. Without proper rest and time to heal, joint injuries can have a domino effect, whether we're talking about professional athletes or the average person. Lowry's recent stats speak for themselves, in terms of the detrimental impact the injury is having on his shooting technique.

[JWash]

That orthopedic surgeons and physical therapists do not understand the simple basis physiological function of atrophy speaks to their academic ignorance.

Rest decreases fitness.

--------------------------------------------------

Rather, working the joint in a way that doesn’t aggravate the injury, but strengthens supporting tissues and stimulates blood flow to the painful area may promote healing faster than “a tincture of time.”

--------------------------------------------------

To recover from injuries, athletes have to start below the intensity that injured them and gradually increase their intensity to levels that stimulate the body to make a physiological adjustment.

http://www.drmikemarshall.com/RestMa...riesWorse.html

[Barolt]

Saying rest can only be a good thing is just flat wrong. Let me give you one scenario. The doctors have evaluated the situation and determined that even by resting the problem is not going to go away come playoff time. In that case resting is going to do nothing whereas playing can allow lowry to get used to, adjust to and learn to compensate for the injury. Just one example.. People keep trying to paint this as black and white when it's absolutely not.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

Can you think of a single scenario where compensating for one injury caused another one?

[Axel]

They've been talking about decreasing Lowry's minutes for literally the entire season and it's only gone up.

From the link in OP of the managing minutes thread:

"We are trying to limit Kyle’s minutes," Casey said. "It’s very difficult in trying to do what we need to do. It depends on the guys behind him stepping up and doing their job so we don’t wear out DeMar and Kyle and our starting unit. Our margin for error is very slim so I wish we could rest guys or take two weeks off but we can’t do that."

"I feel good," Lowry said. "I'll let you guys know in March and April how I really feel, that's where it's really going to [matter]."

[Barolt]

http://www.drmikemarshall.com/RestMa...riesWorse.html

You keep ignoring the word gradual.

Did last night's effort from Lowry look like a gradual increase to you?

[JWash]

You keep ignoring the word gradual.

Did last night's effort from Lowry look like a gradual increase to you?

I'm not ignoring anything. And yes, considering his play style, if you're only looking at minutes (which makes no sense) which you are then of course you would think otherwise.

[DanH]

From the link in OP of the managing minutes thread:

"We are trying to limit Kyle’s minutes," Casey said. "It’s very difficult in trying to do what we need to do. It depends on the guys behind him stepping up and doing their job so we don’t wear out DeMar and Kyle and our starting unit. Our margin for error is very slim so I wish we could rest guys or take two weeks off but we can’t do that."

"I feel good," Lowry said. "I'll let you guys know in March and April how I really feel, that's where it's really going to [matter]."

Margin for error is slim, and here we are with 8 games left and the second seed pretty much sewn up. Frankly, it was pretty much sewn up 5 games ago. Not exactly a slim margin for error.

[Barolt]

I'm not ignoring anything. And yes, considering his play style, if you're only looking at minutes (which makes no sense) which you are then of course you would think otherwise.

Let's go back to that sloan sports article and the predictors of injury:

http://www.sloansportsconference.com...BA-players.pdf

1) Speed. Lowest on team, so that's good.
2) Games played. That was his 72nd game of the season, not good.
3) Distance covered. More than anyone else in the game, not good.
4) Number of minutes played. More than anyone else in the game, not good.
5) Number of field goals attempted. More than anyone else in the game, not good.

Totally, wasn't a hard game for him, right?