On the heels of Boston’s second-round exit from the NBA playoffs, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown has reportedly undergone arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.
ESPN’s Shams Charania broke the news on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday, revealing that despite the surgery, Brown is expected to be ready for training camp in October. Given that, Dr. Evan Jeffries, DPT, who frequently breaks down sports injuries for fans, believes Brown had a meniscectomy.
As he explained in response to Charania’s post, the fact that Brown will be good to go for training camp indicates that he didn’t have the meniscus repaired. If he did, the procedure would have forced the 2024 Finals MVP to the sidelines for four to six months.
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As we've seen in the past, the decision to either remove part of the meniscus or repair it is pretty big. While players like Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul have played some of their best basketball post-meniscectomy, other players have struggled.
Derrick Rose, Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard and Lonzo Ball, for example, all dealt with their own unique set of challenges post-meniscectomy, with Ball eventually undergoing a cartilage transplant to get back on the court.
In the case of Jaylen Brown, the hope, of course, is that he falls into the former grouping, alongside Westbrook and Paul.
Looking at the season ahead for Boston Celtics as Jaylen Brown looks to recover from meniscus injury, and Jayson Tatum looks to recover from Achilles tear
Heading into this season, the Boston Celtics were eager to go back-to-back as NBA champions. With nearly the entirety of their championship roster returning for this season, hope was high among Celtics fans.
Despite that, cause for concern began to emerge ahead of the postseason, with reports from ESPN indicating that Jaylen Brown received a painkilling shot in his knee.
Then, in Game 1 of the Celtics' first-round series with the Orlando Magic, Jayson Tatum sustained a wrist injury that forced him to miss Game 2. While Boston made it through Orlando, Tatum went down with a torn Achilles in the second round, spelling the end of his season and the Celtics' hopes for a title.
After undergoing surgery the day after tearing his Achilles, the expectation is that Tatum will miss most of, but potentially not all of, next season.
When he does return, there's no telling what the Celtics' roster will look like.
With the team up against the second apron, and reports suggesting that they will make multiple moves this offseason, only time will tell which players Brad Stevens retains for the year ahead.
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