The Boston Celtics could make a shock move on draft night
The Boston Celtics could make a shock move on draft night
The Boston Celtics hold the 28th and 32nd picks in the 2025 NBA draft. Following Jayson Tatum's Achilles tendon tear, Brad Stevens is expected to explore ways of retooling the current roster. One way Stevens could make a change is by adding a fresh young talent via the draft, either late in the first round or by potentially finding a way to move up.
Grant Afseth of RG recently reported that Boston is exploring opportunities to trade their way up the draft board. Stevens would likely need to package both current picks and potentially add a player to sweeten the deal. Nevertheless, if Stevens has a target in mind, that could be a small price to pay for a player who could help the Celtics for years to come.
During a recent episode of the "First to the Floor" podcast, the hosts discussed Afseth's report and the potential of Boston targeting someone higher up the draft board. They also dove into potential draft targets if the Celtics did find a willing trade partner.
You can watch the full podcast episode by clicking on the embedded video above.
Watch the "Taylor Talks Celtics" podcast on:
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3QnlPcS
Website: https://bit.ly/3WoA0Cf
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So, if you think about inside the knee, there's a smooth lining of the joint called the synovium. And then there's other soft tissue like the meniscus cartilage and the ACL and the fat pad of the knee. So, each of these tissues can be injured, inflamed, or scarred. And if something's injured or torn, often it'll produce catching in the knee, or locking, or bothersome and then cause swelling. And so when a surgeon looks inside the knee and does a debridement, it means cleaning up the torn tissue or the scarred tissue or the inflamed tissue, actually shaving it away and sucking it out of the knee. Bobby Krivitsky: The Celtics said in a press release that they expect him to participate in training camp without limitation. I have two questions on that front: The first is if that signals to you that he likely underwent a partial meniscectomy. Dr. Stone: So that's highly possible. It's probably the most common injury that we see. 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But it's probably the right decision for someone at that stage of their career. They're right in the middle of it. It's so important to get back quickly. Most of the time, if it is a meniscectomy, which means cleaning up or removing part of that critical tissue or cleaning up some scar tissue in the knee, most of the time, after four weeks to six weeks to eight weeks, the knee is quieted down enough that you can return to full sports. And people often even return earlier, but the knee gets a little irritated when they do. Bobby Krivitsky: It reminds me, especially the idea that Brown might have opted for a faster return to physical activity, of our conversation about Jayson Tatum's Achilles injury and the sentiment you shared that athletes tend to cheat. 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Unfortunately, that's also the most important part of the meniscus for shock absorption and protection of the joint. But we see so many athletes who tear those and so many athletes who need to have a quick recovery that I would expect he'd be back full bore without limitation. And then we'll see him later on in life, when then, he's talking to him, and we'll put back a new meniscus is the common story. Bobby Krivitsky: Generally, when it is located in the back corner, what does the athlete look like upon returning to play? Dr. Stone: Full full bore. They really -- as long as they train properly and rehab properly, which I'm sure he would do. What we try to do is teach athletes to use their injury as an opportunity. And the opportunity is to come back fitter, faster, and stronger -- as we like to say -- than you were before you got hurt. You're going to have a little downtime and might as well use that downtime to train the parts of your body that you hadn't spent as much time on. And whether that's your core, your back, or your flexibility, or relatively protecting the knee while we're pushing the rest of the body hard. That's a great way to look at these injuries: that look, everybody gets injured, the best athletes come back better after that injury. Bobby Krivitsky: That's certainly an important lesson for both Brown and Tatum to apply as they rehab here and embark on these roads to recovery. In researching this surgery, it said this procedure is most commonly performed to help reduce the symptoms of arthritis. If Brown has arthritis in his knee, how concerning is that for his career and for a player who's known for his explosive athleticism? Dr. Stone: Yeah, so it really depends on the degree of arthritis. So, a little bit of cartilage fraying is very mild, but sometimes it's still labeled as arthritis. When it becomes more where the bearing surface of the joint, the articular cartilage surface, that white, shiny surface when you crack open a chicken leg, that's articular cartilage. When that bearing surface wears off and gets down to the bone -- that's a more severe arthritis that limits athletes' careers and eventually ends them. Eventually, they end up back in our clinic to have either a cartilage grafting procedure, where we regrow that cartilage, or eventually, sometimes, they'll have a partial replacement procedure where we put in a metal cap and a plastic tray. So, in any case, as long as the arthritis is not too bad, then these days, we're treating almost everybody with mild forms of arthritis, and even more severe ones, with injections of PRP and hyaluronic acid, and sometimes some other cells and growth factors in order to accelerate their return and to protect the joint surface, hopefully, delaying the time in which they ever get arthritis, or minimizing the symptoms. Bobby Krivitsky: Lastly, Dr. Stone, is there anything we didn't discuss about this that is important to cover? Dr. Stone: Yeah, it's just that people should understand that these injuries have a very wide range of presentation, and you should always try to figure out what the bias of your surgeon is. We are very biased towards making an early and accurate diagnosis with an MRI, an X-ray, and a physical exam and repairing torn tissues that are critical for the knee in the long term. So, know that the techniques have gotten really good. We've gotten quite good at regrowing articular cartilage. We've gotten quite good at replacing meniscus cartilage and repairing them when they're torn. So, being pretty aggressive about saving the critical tissues in your knee permits you to play forever, as I like to say. Our goal is to have you drop dead at age 100, still playing some sport.
