DirtyFacedKid wrote:I'd say it was a major miscalculation if this was more about saving him than not using him as much due to health issues.
It was saving him because of an arthritic knee.
Last year they over-used him and as a result the knee flared up (pain/swelling) and he had to be sidelined.
You can run on an arthritic knee if you manage it and avoid that kind of flare-up. In this case that meant keeping his load down in the first half of the season.
If they DIDN'T do that then they would risk a flare-up like last December, and that means losing him for a few games (at least 2).
So last year they over-used him, the arthritic knee flared up, and they lost him for a couple of games.
This year they did it the other way around. Held him back early then turned to him late in the season.
This whole "I forgot how to use him" coy thing McV does fools no one. Nor is it even meant to fool anyone anymore--we just know that's how he will talk when the knee or load management questions come up. He does that, chances are, because Gurley does not want the knee talked about and the team respects that. But it has long since reached the point where when McV says stuff like that, we're just supposed to chuckle and shrug. He's not going to talk about the knee and be forthcoming. He's just not. He has a routine he uses when people ask, and we should never expect to get anything but that routine from him. Meanwhile if you look at their actions, it tells the story.
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