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He took an opponent's knee to his right knee in the final preseason game last Friday and then had the same thing happen in practice after that, so he took two days off as a precaution. But by Wednesday he was back in full participation, without any concern about being ready for the opener. The key, now, will be to find a pace he's comfortable at that still allows him to be a significant contributor to this Wolves team that needs his steadying influence and outside shooting touch.
"I have a tendency to want to do a lot really fast, but I'm just trying to be patient and understand that it's a long season," Roy said. "I want to be peaking later in the year than I am early."
Roy worked out for two months last winter before deciding to try an increasingly popular but medically unproven procedure known as platelet-rich plasma therapy. It's basically an injection of a patient's own blood back into the body, to help heal degenerative joints. Kobe Bryant went to Germany before last season to have it done, and Roy has credited the technique for allowing him to work out hard and feel no day-after discomfort. His condition was good enough to persuade the Timberwolves to give him a two-year contract.
So with his body no longer a road block to being on the court, as it was for all of the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season and for nearly half of the 2010-11 slate, the three-time All-Star and 2006-07 NBA Rookie of the Year has reached the point of his Wolves debut. Finally, the fans who decried the Roy-for-Randy Foye trade the team made on that draft day will have the chance to cheer him on.
"Brandon would not have come back, I don't think, if he felt deep down that he couldn't return to a level of play at or near where he once was," Timberwolves basketball boss David Kahn said.
That level, though, is yet to be defined.
"The NBA season is long and it's grueling, regardless of injury, so we're going to have to be smart, but I feel great," Roy said. "And again, I'm not going to put a cap on anything that I can do."
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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