Return of The Injuries

The biggest headlines coming into the NBA season are the return of All-Star players due to injuries. Those being; Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, and Kobe Bryant. They will have the most impact.

Derrick Rose grabs attention coming off his ACL injury. Before his first preseason game on October 5th, Rose had not played an NBA game in 526 days.  Rose has done a collection of commercials that say his main focus is to go all in for Chicago. Last year the Chicago Bulls had a fairly good season without him, earning the 5th seed in the playoffs and making it to the second round before losing to the champion Miami Heat. This year with Rose back expectations are very high and they are expected to make a run for the title.

Russell Westbrook is coming off a freak injury, suffered in the first round of the playoffs last year. Westbrook was going to the sideline to call timeout and Patrick Beverley made a controversial play at trying to steal the ball. Westbrook tore his meniscus and had to miss the rest of the playoffs. The Thunder struggled without Westbrook losing to Memphis in the second round 4 to 1. Westbrook was expected to play around the start of the season this year, but something went wrong after surgery on his knee and he has to miss 4 to 6 weeks when the season starts. Without Westbrook to start the season I think the Thunder will struggle, without Westbrook they will not be a contender in the Western Conference.

Rajon Rondo tore his ACL last year during the regular season. The Celtics seemed to struggled without him by receiving the 7th seed and getting knocked out the first round. Rondo doesn't have anything to look forward to in his return because they traded Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry. In my opinion the Celtics won't make the playoffs this year.

Injuries can have a big impact on a teams success
(Photo Dominique Neely)

Kobe Bryant is coming back from a torn achilles and trying to make a push for the playoffs. However with the team he has  this year it is not looking good. Kobe will not make it back for the start of the season and I don't see the Lakers winning a game without him. Laker Fans will be taking a back seat to their cross town rivals the Los Angeles Clippers for the second year in a row.