The news of Chase Budinger’s knee aggravation and need for surgery brings two cliches to mind:
“Here we go again,” and “Things will work themselves out.”
We’ll take them one at a time.
“Here we go again…”
I hardly need to explain this one. Budinger missed 59 games last year due to a torn meniscus. His teammate Kevin Love, All-NBA the season prior, missed 64. Ricky Rubio missed 25 and had to play his way back into shape after ACL reconstruction. Andrei Kirilenko and Nikola Pekovic missed 18 and 20 games respectively. I suppose I should also include Brandon Roy, here. For a minute, we talked ourselves into his comeback tour. It lasted five games before the former Blazer great called it a career.
In short, what many expected to be the team’s first playoff appearance in years turned into a 31-51 season of medical updates and frustration.
With just a few days remaining before media day (Eds note: I’m excited to make my inaugural media appearance on Monday.) and the start of training camp, this Budinger news carries an inescapable sense of doom-and-gloom, in light of everything that went down a season ago. Let’s hope it’s the only setback the team faces in the season’s early stages.
“Things will work themselves out.”
Punch-Drunk Wolves 