Timberwolves guard Brandon Roy released a statement prior to Saturday’s game against the Phoenix Suns addressing his status over the past two days.
Roy practiced with the team on Thursday and sounded optimistic about his recovery, but he missed Friday’s practice and was not at the team’s shootaround this morning at Target Center.
"Last week while practicing, I suffered a setback in my recovery,” Roy said through a team statement. “I’ve felt better since the recent surgery, but I am not all the way better. The past two days I have been weighing all of my options as I try to continue my basketball career. I have decided to explore additional treatment options and an extensive rehabilitation plan. My goal has been, and continues to be, to return to the basketball court as healthy as possible in order to help our team. "
Wolves President of Basketball Operations David Kahn said before the game that he and Roy had an extensive talk on Friday and met in person today to discuss his options. He decided that trying to continue his rehabilitation was the option he wanted to explore.
Neither Roy nor Kahn were specific on the type of rehabilitation plan in which he plans to participate.
Kahn said Roy is feeling better than he did before he had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in November, but he’s not feeling as good as he did before he bumped his knee in Milwaukee during Minnesota’s final preseason game. That’s where Roy wants to be before he can give it a go.
“The other day he visited with a doctor; he’s hopeful that something can be done that proves to be beneficial,” Kahn said. “He’s at a point where he’d like to try. That’s what he’s been considering the last few days.”
It’s definitely a setback for Roy, who said on Thursday he felt like he was getting close to getting back on the court. He didn’t guarantee, but he said he thought he might be able to suit up for tonight’s game against Phoenix. But he didn’t practice the last two days, and at this point Kahn said Roy is looking to see where the rehabilitation process takes him over the next three or four weeks.
Roy averaged 5.8 points and 4.6 assists this season for the Wolves. Roy averaged 18.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists during his six-year career, the first five coming with Portland where he was a three-time All-Star.
Kahn said the Wolves are pulling for Roy but understand that this is another setback in his attempted return to the NBA.
"Let me be very clear: He feels better than he did before he did the arthroscopic,” Kahn said. “What he wants to feel is how he felt in the preseason. He felt really good in the preseason until that incident occurred, and why that incident created the trauma that it did, who knows, but he wants to get back to feeling the way that he did."