Tom Moore has the scoop. After practice today, coach DiLeo talked about his plan for assimilating Brand back into the rotation and style of the team.
The plan is for Brand to come off the bench for 4-6 minute stretches until he his conditioning allows him to start and play 30 minutes/game. This shouldn't take too long. My guess is that he'll be back in the starting lineup by the following Saturday against the Nets. That's the second half of a back-to-back, so the following Tuesday, against the Celtics is another possibility.
At this point, when and how he gets back on the floor is no longer the issue for me. Right now, the only thing I'm concerned about is the integrity of that joint. If he dislocates it again, he's going to be done for the season. This is a big risk the Sixers are taking, I hope it doesn't wind up biting them.
And so it begins
Keep your fingers crossed, man. I'm not optimistic about this.
I'm universally known on the web for my pessimism and kind of working on it. Like I've been saying (and trying to tell myself) i'm going to give it time - it's going to take time - weeks - before brand is integrated fully back into the system. All I know is that the more minutes brand gets the less minutes the rook is going to get until the haitian thief (he's stealing salary and minutes) is gone.
I'm optimistic about Brand's integration. I'm pessimistic about the injury.
I'm pessimistic about the injury as well - but i would hope they'd be smart enough (and employ smart enough people) that they wouldn't risk it unless they were sure - in fact the 'false starts' give me hope that they were waiting until they were 100%/it was 100% ready to go
The problem is that 100% ready to go still means 50% chance of re-injury.
Since we didn't exactly struggle with him out, and his absence indisputably helped our offense a ton (our defense actually improved with his absence too, but that's surely an anomaly), I'm not too worried about whether or not he gets re-injured. By the way, our last opponent, Dallas, just lost at Milwaukee by 34.
And Portland, who we beat by 21, beat Milwaukee by 17. San Antonio, who we beat by 22, has won three straight since.
Ah the transitive property of victories and losses - it's always my favorite fake analysis in sports :)
How long until we see a starting frontcourt of Brand and Speights? Next year?
I think this is up to Speights. He has the ability to play well enough to force DiLeo's hand.
My best guess is that we see that starting lineup before the end of the season.
My very optimistic projection before the season started was that speights would surpass sam as the starter by the all star break - i still hold out hope - but it's slim with the brand injury slowing things down.
From a 'style' point of view - the sixers are better off with Speights because of his athleticism and finishing ability, hell he has better range than Elton Brand - but his defense probably still needs improvement and people are still wowed by blocks