How Bad is Young's Ankle?
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How Bad is Young's Ankle?
Right now, that's probably the question all 76ers fans want answered: How bad is it?
With 2 minutes, 15 seconds left in the first quarter, Thaddeus Young jumped to contest a lefty hook by Josh Smith. Smith made the shot, Young's right foot landed on Smith's. He immediately clutched his ankle and, a couple of minutes later, put no pressure on the foot in being helped to the training room by Donyell Marshall and Theo Ratliff.
Late in the second quarter, Sixers officials distributed a release saying that x-rays were negative for a fracture, that Young would obviously not return (the obviously being my addition, not what they said), and that it was officially diagnosed as an ankle sprain.
After the game, the Sixers officials said that Young would receive an MRI sometime on Wednesday to determine if there was any ligament damage. Officially, the Sixers listed him as "Day-to-Day."
This is an educated guess, but I would be surprised if Young played again in the regular season. Why?
1.) Here's Andre Miller's quote after the game: "He'll probably be out a couple of weeks. Hopefully, he'll be back by the first game of the playoffs. He had to be helped off, he couldn't put any weight on it. He needs to get that taken care of and not try to come back too early."
2.) After the game in the training room, Young, in jeans, was pulling a sock over a tightly wrapped ace bandage around his right ankle. Metal crutches were leaning against the training table.
3.) Someone told me Young was in a great deal of pain and this was his worst ankle sprain since high school.
4.) Sixers coach Tony DiLeo kept saying the coaching staff would need to sit down and talk about how to fill the gaps without Young, even going so far as to say that they would have to decide who will start in Young's place on Thursday.
Again, this is just an educated guess. Young could be back by the end of the week. The MRI could reveal nothing. But it seems unlikely Young won't need at least a decent rest. If there is ligament damage, it's going to take much longer than two weeks to heal.
Regardless of how long Young is out -- one game, two games, more games -- the Sixers will need to figure out what to do without him. Although it would appear the solution presented itself tonight: Start Marreese Speights. He often struggles on defense, and is still learning, but he had 16 points tonight, and a bunch of key buckets as the Sixers pulled away.
We'll let you know ASAP tomorrow upon hearing the results of Young's MRI.
--Kate
Tough one. It really felt like thad was coming into his own lately. You knew when Marshall and ratliff had to carry him off that it wasn't good. From the replay, it looked like even the knee buckled out a bit, so it's good news that were just talking about an ankle sprain. I agree they are likely looking at keeping him out til the playoffs at any rate. So it looks like speights will get some heavy minutes, if not an outright start. Look to see a lot more of ratliff, reggie, and marshall. This will be an interesting test of this teams character— K,M- I agree with K,M - Start Speights and use others as needed depending on how Speights plays, how Sam plays, match ups and how effective Ratliff and Evans are on a givin night. I realy like Sam and Speights at the same time! russ— russ4philly
- Young was elevating his game to a new level in march...perhaps all-star caliber level. Hopefully, this doesn't deter his development. It's been the only pleasant suprise this season.— mdriban
- From where Thad grabbed his ankle this looks like a "high-ankle" sprain- not the kind most of us have experienced on the playgrounds. If this is what it is, depending on the severity, management sometimes even includes surgery and recovery time could be months. The team responded well last night except that clearly nobody could cover Smith like Thad might have. To me, Speights is the answer for most situations, though teams with physical, slower 4's might be matched up against better by starting Evans. And Theo's insertion last night was exactly what was needed at the right time. He needs to get his 10 minutes or so most nights, especially when solid defense and rebounding is called for.— doctorj
- I wasn't really saying that I think speights *needs* to start. I was saying that in this situation he will get more time and might wind up getting a start. He needs to get more disciplined on defense and tougher on the boards before he's a legit everyday starter(and i was happy to hear ratliff and igoudala saying that guys have been getting on him about that). I wouldn't be surprised to see reggie get the nod if we're matched up against a PF who is a scoring threat. But yeah, at any rate i think we'll certainly see more of the kid, and depending on how matchups work out he may just get a shot at starting.— K,M
- I agree that Speights is the one who should get the starting nod, but there is no way Tony D. is going to do it. He is going to start his old reliable, Reggie Evans. We will be playing 3 on 5 on offense for most of every 1st and 3rd quarter for the rest of the regular season. Reggie has his place but starting and logging major minutes is not one of them.— zebra
- josh smith showed us last nite why elton brand will be stefanski's biggest mistake.— jazztafari
- Kate. Do you think the Sixers can catch up to Miami with the loss of Thad for at least half of the remaining final 9 games? Probably not. And even if we did get Atlanta and were fortunate to get to the second round, does anyone have expectations beyond that? Probably not. Then WHY doesn't ED and DILEO use this time for experimentation and experience, and then if we get in the playoffs after all that, it will be gravy.— Fo Fo Fo
- Fianlly the coach will be forced to do what he should have done earlier in the season: develop Speights. Why anyone would want a scrub, marginal player like Reggie Evans on the court instead of Speights is beyond reason. This is simple- games are won by scoring more, Reggie can't score with any king of consistency, Speights can help but score simply by being out there. The rest of the skills are important too, but the Sixers won't be able to genrate enough offense or win games with Thad out if the Sixers don't play Speights extended minutes and get more out of Lou Williams.— ricky
- Young’s angle injury at best has no tear in ligament but it would be very unlikely there is NO damage to ligament. I sincerely doubt he will be back certainly for season and probably playoffs. This is a no brainer that Speights should be starting for his potential offense and surely for additional experience. It is unfortunate an injury may force DiLeo make this move that should have been done much much sooner.— warreng
huh warreng have you seen young play? speights isn't even 1/4 the player he is at this point in his career- Speights better be starting now. It's too bad we don't get to see the Sammy, Thad, Speights, Iggy, Miller five that many of us have been screaming for. Hopefully, we'll see how well Speight can play D when he's not the only big man in there. But now the pressure is really on for Willie Green. He has to step up and get hot more often or else, when Thad is healthy again . . .. And please don't start Reggie. Reggie is a role player, bring him in when you need to shake thinks up. Reggie = Chaos. Sometimes chaos is just what you need, but not to start every game.— phasor
- Thaddeus Young often struggles on Defense too. Not to make light of this injury because Thaddeus is an important part of the team but if this is just a case of a sprained ankle that will keep Thad out a week or two its really not going to effect the Sixers that much. The winnable games on this schedule are still winnable especially if they can get efforts from Speights like they did last night. I don't know how anybody can say they would be surprised if there was no ligament damage. Sprained ankles happen all the time and are generally not a serious injury.— brannigan73
- eaglesssuperfan,of course I was not saying Speights should start instead of Young, but with Young.Phasor has it right— warreng
- brannigan73-And what is an ankle sprain, exactly? It’s an injury to one of the ligaments in your ankle. Ligaments are tough bands of tissue that hold your bones together. Although ligaments are flexible, all it takes is a sudden twist for them to stretch too far or snap entirely.— warreng
John Mitchell is in his second year covering the 76ers for the Inquirer after joining the paper in November 2011. He covered the Washington Wizards for the Washington Times from 1998 to 2008. He's also worked at the Philadelphia Tribune, the Wilmington News Journal, Courier-Post, Trenton Times and Elmira Star-Gazette.Born and raised in West Philadelphia - not too far from Will Smith - he graduated from Overbrook High School the same year the 76ers won their last championship. He's a proud graduate of Howard University and the proud father of two sons, Jared and Jordan.
ABOUT MARC NARDUCCI
Marc Narducci has served in a variety of roles with the Inquirer since beginning in 1983. He has covered the 76ers as a backup and a beat writer. In addition, Narducci has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and a lot in between. Narducci also has a true passion for South Jersey scholastic sports, which he has covered for many years.
