(Photo: USA Today)
Washington Wizards point guard John Wall has made the decision to undergo knee surgery to resolve a lingering issue of left knee soreness that has impacted his game over the last three months. The five-time All-Star will undergo an arthroscopic debridement procedure, commonly known as a knee scope or washout, on his left knee on Wednesday following consultation with Dr. Richard D. Parker and Wizards Head Team Physician Wiemi Douoguih. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Parker at the Cleveland Clinic Marymount where Wall has his double knee surgery in May 2016. A timeline for Wall’s return will be provided following completion of the procedure, but is expected to be around six-to-eight weeks.
From VeryWell: "Arthroscopic debridement, specifically, involves using surgical instruments to remove damaged cartilage or bone. The surgeon typically does a washout, called a joint lavage, to remove any debris around the affected joint. If loose bodies or fragments remain after the lavage, they are removed."
"You know, you never want to see anybody get injured, especially a guy like John [Wall]," Bradley Beal said following a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. "Things do happen. It’s always next man up."
John Wall was averaging 19.4 points and 9.3 assists this season and was selected by the Eastern Conference coaches to his fifth consecutive All-Star game.
"It’s a challenge, obviously," Tomas Satoransky said at Tuesday's shootaround about his role in Wall’s absence. "John is the main guy, so it’s always tough to cover your main guy when he goes down and it’s very challenging. Obviously I like challenges, but it will be a lot of responsibility. Playing for me as a starter against other starters, it’s another challenge and step up in my game, so we’ll see how it goes. But, I think we have great teammates here and great players who also can embrace the moment and make the best out of it."
The initial injury came about following knee-to-knee contact came on November 7 against the Dallas Mavericks and required him to receive a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) and viscosupplementation injections to reduce the inflammation in his left knee. He would go on to miss nine consecutive games and he has missed a total of 11 games this season due to left knee soreness before Wall and his inner circle finally decided to make the surgery call. Wall only missed 12 games in his previous four seasons combined.
One teammate described the loss of their leader as "devastating." That is about the best way to sum it up.
The franchise player was hoping to get to the offseason before making such a long-term move, but could not imagine continuing to play not at 100 percent for the remaining three or more months of the season. There are times where his knee is sufficiently lose and he is able to play through the swelling, but other times where he literally limps around the court. There was not any new damage revealed by Wall's most recent MRI on Monday, but another piece of evidence that the swelling was not going away.
"It's unfortunate man, texted him not too long ago, just told him to 'stay strong.' Small little bump in the road, but he'll get back," Morris said after shootaround. "Just need guys to step in, we need everybody to take their game's up to another level. It's going to be tough without our best man, but you know, it's the NBA and it's next man up. ... It's a lot tougher [without Wall], he puts it on a platter for most of us and without him, everyone got to take their game up another level. We need guys to be better playmakers, we need guys to be scoring the ball more, we just need everybody to bring their game up."
The Wizards are currently 27-22 and tied for fifth place in the Eastern Conference and with Wall missing anywhere between 20 and 25 more games should he return between March 14 and 28th, it may be an uphill climb for Washington to even make the playoffs. Washington's regular season ends on April 11.
"We spend a lot of time together. We sit next to each other on the plane," Morris said. "He was dealing with some uncomfort, being uncomfortable, but he was pushing through it. He’s a true warrior. I’m just glad we figured this thing out so he can get healthy and by the time he come back, we’ll be in a playoff push and or just getting ready for the playoff."
Tomas Satoransky and Tim Frazier will both do a good job filling in for the dynamic point guard as they combined for 21 assists against just three turnovers last game in Atlanta, but it will put more of a burden on Bradley Beal who will constantly be the subject of double teams. The Wizards are 6-6 this season without Wall.
"It’s obviously very bad news for us, it's still fresh," Satoransky expressed. "It’s a big loss, obviously. Feeling kind of sad for him not to play in All-Star along with Brad. We were all hoping for that. It's frustrated. I think everyone is doing the best for his knee and he knows it's important in order to be fresh and to be ready for the future. It just proves that he wasn't the John like we know. His knee was bothering all season long so it's probably the best way to do it."
"We said we cannot panic about it," Satoransky summarized. "I think they were kind of ready for that option and we cannot panic about it. Everyone always has to step up. We proved in a lot of games that we have talent even without John and we are a good team especially in that game against Atlanta. I know we cannot just look back and see one game, we have to show it day after, every night and every game, but I think we just proved that we can play good even without him."
At this time, there are no immediate plans to make a big move at the trade deadline as the team does not want to trade their first-round pick and have limited assets aside from Kelly Oubre Jr. Scott Brooks said there is no change in the Wizards approach ahead of the February 8 trade deadline with Wall's injury.
"We know we are talented," Beal said about moving forward, for now, without Wall. "I think we’ve been saying that all year. It’s just a matter of us putting it together. It’s probably the best game we’ve played in terms of our physicality, our approach, our toughness throughout the game. That’s a great team in that other locker room, they have some ups and downs just as well as we do, but that’s still a great team. We did a great job coming out and controlling what we can control focused on us and playing our style of basketball."