Andrew Bynum injury: 76ers’ star to undergo season-ending surgery

To properly evaluate the 76ers’ decision, we need to answer three smaller questions.

So the 76ers did what many fans hope their mediocre teams would do: blow it up and take the chance on elite talent. If it succeeded, the team would be better. If it failed, the team would still have around $14 million in cap space, depending on where the cap line fell. I’m inclined to agree with Liberty Ballers’ Michael Levin when he wrote this a few months ago.

The Philadelphia 76ers have already gotten the bad news about Andrew Bynum’s knees -- the center needs season-ending surgery on both -- and now the team has to figure out how to act going forward, not to mention who will be around to make those decisions.

Adrian Wojnarowski’s report on Bynum’s surgeries for Yahoo! Sports featured some interesting tidbits related to the direction of the franchise. After sacrificing several key pieces to bring in Bynum this season before he becomes a free agent this offseason, the team has been blindsided by the extent of Bynum’s knee injuries. It expected him to play this season and to make a major play to keep the talented 27-year-old big in Philadelphia when he became an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Now, those plans are up in the air.

This ends a year-long saga that saw a seemingly routine summer procedure turn into a serious injury. Bynum had an Orthokine procedure in September and was expected to return for the start of the season, but his timetable kept getting pushed back. Questions persisted as we reached mid-November until the 76ers’ center admitted he suffered a setback in his left knee due to a bowling accident. Bynum has occasionally practiced since then, but never seriously enough to return.

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These are trying times for Bynum and the Sixers, who have struggled mightily to a 22-34 record without the big man in the lineup. Head coach Doug Collins has just about gone off the deep end, and he essentially lamented making the Bynum deal during his now infamous meltdown earlier in the week.

Whatever actually happens with Bynum this season, Philadelphia has a monumentally difficult decision to make this offseason. Bynum is set to become an unrestricted free agent, but can the Sixers really afford to throw a huge contract at him with so much uncertainty surrounding his health? Sean O’Connor at Liberty Ballers took a look at the options on the table, and he says there really is no good answer to that question.

Bynum addressed the media on Friday afternoon regarding the latest setback, but he didn’t sound confident about making a quick recovery, via Tom Moore of phillyburbs.com:

When asked if he feels like he has to play this year, Bynum had this to say: “No. I don’t feel that, at all. I feel like it’s my life. I’m 25 and I don’t want to have no cartilage because that’s bad.” He remained candid with the media throughout the interview, and even admitted that he does not want to play through pain at the moment: “Yeah, that’s true. I don’t want to play in pain.”

He started working out in mid-January. He resumed on-court activities a week later. He practiced with the team and participated in a 5-on-5 drill just last Friday. Sixers blog Liberty Ballers has updated Bynum’s progess at every stage of his recovery -- because he could drastically change the trajectory of the franchise if he ever got healthy -- and even they were starting to feel optimistic about the situation. Now it appears that the Friday practice has caused swelling in Bynum’s knee, according to John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

It’s unclear whether this will cause the team to shut Bynum down and keep him off the court, but additional swelling sure sounds like another setback.

Andrew Bynum participated in a 5-on-5 scrimmage with the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, the team confirmed on Saturday. There was one report that Bynum practiced that leaked out Friday, but given a lack of pomp or other corroboration, no one was sure it was true. But it was. And according to coach Doug Collins via USA Today Sports, it wasn’t even planned: Bynum just kind of jumped in and asked if he could play. He did, off and on during the scrimmage.

But don’t you dare think he’s returning to the court any time soon. From the aforelinked USA Today piece:

Bynum worked out Saturday and Sunday in sessions that lasted as long as two hours, not at full speed with teammates, but in drills that included dunking and running up and down the court. But after saying progress was being made and that game action was near, he said he was experiencing extreme pain, especially in his left knee, as Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News reports:

The 7-footer said he was glad to be back on the court and that he was nearing playing weight, as he’s down to 305 pounds, about 10-20 more than he expects to weigh in-season. His string of optimistic updates followed by apparent setbacks to both knees is quite the saga, which you can follow from its beginning here.

Bynum is doing more and more work each day, and according to Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News, ran “as hard as any media has seen him so far” on an anti-gravity treadmill on Sunday. On Friday, Bynum was on the court working on low post spin moves and testing his knees with hard plants and cuts.

Sixers associate head coach Michael Curry was certainly excited to talk about the impending return of the big man:

Bynum’s new estimated time of arrival is mid-February, a date Bynum says he’ll be able to reach after previous return dates have been pushed back about five times due to offseason knee injuries and the complications surrounding them. He’s been doing a little bit of work on the court -- per Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News, he shot around with the team Monday, has been working on post moves, and been doing light jogging -- but hasn’t been able to do any lateral movement.

He’s also been working out on an anti-gravity treadmill the team bought for $60,000 to allow him to condition himself without putting weight on the delicate knee, but it hasn’t gone so well: Bynum says the machine is broken:

Bynum told Moore that he was hovering around 300 pounds but appeared upbeat about a return in about a month. The NBA All-Star weekend is Feb. 15-17 in Houston.

The news is all gravy in Sixers land. Liberty Ballers posted a photo of Bynum working out with the Philadelphia staff on Monday in what was his first recorded court action after most recently injuring his left knee while bowling. That setback lingered until about a week ago, when Bynum met with the media to say he was feeling good and would return soon.

The 7-footer is a free agent at the end of the season, and it’s unclear whether he would re-sign with the 76ers once his contract is finished. Bynum has played a full 82 games just once in his career during the 2006-2007 season with the Los Angeles Lakers. He has played no more than 65 games in a season since then.

Last season, Bynum averaged a double-double, 18.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per contest for the Lakers.

Bynum, who is yet to play this season due to knee issues, will have an MRI done on December 20. He said he still feels pain simply walking around and doesn’t expect to start playing right away even when he receives medical clearance. Still, despite the prolonged knee issues, he said he hasn’t considered the possibility that he won’t play at all this season.

With knee pain limiting what he can do, Bynum said he’s staying in shape by swimming laps. While he is yet to help Philadelphia on the court this season, he said he still thinks he can help the 76ers win. Bynum said if the Finals were going on now, he could “potentially” be helping the team.

Windhorst got the news from Sixers general manager Tony DiLeo. The center has been dealing with a lingering knee injury that has kept him out this season. The Sixers had hoped that Bynum would have been back in the lineup around the middle of December.

So far, Philadelphia is yet to see Bynum on the court due to a balky right knee. Now, there are rumors his knee could be in worst shape than initially feared, according to delawareonline.com.

One surgeon who hasn’t seen Bynum’s MRIs and doesn’t work with him believes Bynum could be suffering from lesions on his knee, which would likely cost him the season. In the best case scenario, he would at least be out until March or April, according to the doctor.

The veteran big man does not have anything in his contract that would prohibit him from bowling during the season, but told Windhorst that his left knee began to swell after one of his usual trips to the bowling alley earlier in the month. Bynum’s right knee developed a serious bone bruise before the season and has effectively delayed his debut in a Philadelphia uniform, but now his timetable becomes even more hazy with a brand new issue in his other knee.

Philadelphia has already pushed back Bynum’s return date a handful of times, and it’s certainly not promising for him to develop significant swelling in both knees at this point in the season. The Sixers will undoubtedly tell Bynum to keep his leisure activities to the minimum until he actually returns to the court, but it’s difficult to say how much this bowling injury will affect his recovery:

Bynum received Orthokine therapy injections in both of his knees in September, a procedure he had to travel to Germany to have. He’s since received lubricant injections. He was originally slated to return to the court in January, but this new development may throw his schedule off.

The 76ers have been purposely open-ended with Bynum’s recovery in recent weeks, but they did initially say that he would return on October 24 if everything went right. Clearly, not everything has gone right for Bynum since then, so it’s odd for Bynum to suggest that 8-12 weeks was the “original plan.” Perhaps it was the original plan once it became clear that Bynum would not make that October 24 date.

Bynum had a knee procedure in September and has not returned to the court since. He had what was described as a “routine” injection in October to help facilitate a return, but it has not worked quite as planned.

The team released a statement saying that the 25-year-old center received an MRI last Monday, where Bynum’s longtime personal doctor extended his return date by three additional weeks. The bone bruise, initially suffered in September, was supposed to keep him out four weeks, but has since been pushed back several times. From the release:

Bynum is cleared to begin “low impact exercise” immediately, and will continue for two weeks before beginning conditioning work on an anti-gravity treadmill. After three weeks of that, he’ll be re-examined, and if cleared, will be able to practice with the team. At that point, it will apparently be on the coaching staff and not doctors to determine whether Bynum is fit and ready enough to play starter’s minutes.

A statement from the team said there is no time frame for his return:

Bynum has been battling knee problems for the last month. He had Orthokine therapy on the knee in late September and hasn’t played since.

The Sixers are being especially cautious with the knee in hopes that Bynum’s issue doesn’t become a persistent one. As a result, they won’t set a timetable for his debut with the team. The 25-year-old hasn’t participated any of the team’s preseason games due to a bone bruise on his right knee. He began practicing, but had to stop after experiencing discomfort in the knee.

The team’s CEO, Adam Aron, took to Twitter Monday night to dispel what he felt were false rumors about the status of Bynum’s knee. The center has been resting to maximize the effects of an Orthokine treatment in Germany in September, but Aron wanted to make it clear that he did not undergo surgery -- just injections. Meanwhile, another set of injections Bynum is having are completely routine measures to prevent arthritis and are not cause for a delay in his return to practice. The hold-up that is keeping Bynum from practicing is apparently a bone bruise completely unrelated to the various procedures.

The team expects Bynum to begin practicing Oct. 24 and be healthy for the team’s opener a week later. Doug Collins went so far to say that if the season were happening now, Bynum would play rather than rest his knee. It appears Bynum’s various knee issues are minor and are not a cause for serious concern.