Too much at stake to rush Mudiay
memphis, tenn.»
Everyone is thinking.
Emmanuel Mudiay is thinking about the past and the future. The coaching staff is thinking about the present and the future. The training staff is thinking about the present and the future. All are right. Mudiay’s right ankle injury has been complex.
It’s not a garden-variety ankle sprain. It’s a deltoid sprain, the medial ligament, in his right ankle. Second, it’s an aggravation of the same injury that cost him nearly three months of action in his one previous professional season, in China in 201415. The very hint of a possible reoccurrence of that injury sent the appropriate red flags up to everyone who cares about Mudiay’s well-being, most important from Mudiay himself.
He has been day to day for the last week, and his situation boils down to this: He could come back, say, Sunday against Charlotte, or he could be out for a significant period of time. It has already been 14 games. Ask Mudiay, and he’ll tell you it has already been a significant amount of time. The waiting is killing him.
“Every time I miss a game, it just eats me up,” he said.
Yet he’s more than willing to sit as long as he needs to and get his health in the absolute right space. Even if that means enduring the most predictable criticism some hurl his way — soft. Even if it means he stays out a game too long. It’s better to miss too long than to return too early and risk further injury.
“Steph (Curry) went through it, how he kept reinjuring his ankle,” Mudiay said. “So you’ve just got to be careful with that type of stuff, because I don’t want it to linger. I know I’m 19, young, but at the same time still got to take care of myself.” This situation demands kid gloves. The organization is right to handle it the way it has, by patiently waiting for the process to play out. Too much is at stake. There are no playoffs to rush back for. For Mudiay, this season is about getting experience, getting his feet wet in the NBA, and, to that end, all of this time off has put a big dent in his progress. Still, it’s necessary.
And Mudiay also now admits he needed the break.
“The games before I went out, I struggled a little bit, I’ll admit that,” he said. “But that was just some mind stuff going on with me, locker-room stuff that I needed to clear up. But that’s fine now. Everything is good.”
Not playing much in the fourth quarters had started to get to him. He didn’t play down the stretch of two Nuggets road wins, at Toronto and Philadelphia. Nuggets coach Michael Malone chose to finish games with veterans.
“When I started playing not as well as I wanted to was the road trip we took,” he said. “After that, I kind of had my ups and downs. But I wasn’t finishing quarters and the end of games.” That stress has lifted, he says. Watching has helped. He has studied how Jameer Nelson and Randy Foye operate in the fourth quarter of pressurepacked games. Mudiay has watched how other teams and great point guards finish out games as well. He’ll put all of that to use when he returns. In due time. “It’s all about just getting (the ankle) out of my head, too,” Mudiay said. “I remember how it was the first time. The first time it happened, I was out for three months. That was more severe, but it’s still kind of the same kind of area, typething. I just want to be careful with it.”
He should be. Everyone should be.