International players (Nic & Rudy) with injuries playing overseas..

Let's look at timelines. You tell me as a fan if this concerns you or not.

Rudy Fernandez' sore back stems primarily from Ariza's flagrant foul on 3/9/2009. Nicolas Batum injured his shoulder on 3/11/2009 vs. Dallas at home. Both players reported soreness continued throughout the rest of the season until we finally succumbed to Houston in the playoffs on 4/30/2009. When the season ended there were no red flags about either player. No media stories about how bad either injury might really be. Team doctors never told Rudy in April, "You might wanna get a second opinion on that back. It's been sore now for nearly two months. Get it checked out again before heading off to Europe."

At this point both Nic & Rudy were thinking ahead to Eurobasket from 9/7/2009 to 9/20/2009, instead of resting from a long NBA season. The question is, should we have held them out of the tournament? It's a hotly-debated question throughout the league. Do we let them play anyway, despite knowing for a fact that both players are sore from 82 games of grueling NBA basketball? Or do we state that country is more important than club and let them play anyway? Do we have an obligation to our young players in protecting them for the season we're now struggling through? Mark Cuban held Dirk Nowitzki out of the tournment so he could rest. Why don't more owners take this stance? Paul Allen is dealing with cancer as we speak. Doesn't he deserve more than a skeleton of the team we had last year? Makes me wonder how involved he was with personnel decisions during Eurobasket.

http://www.interbasket.net/news/2009/08/14/nowitzki-european-stars-to-miss-eurobasket-2009/

Now, I'm not claiming that Eurobasket is the sole reason Nic & Rudy need surgery. But it was clear before they went that both of them were struggling with soreness. Nic was even called back to Portland on 8/17/2009 so the team could re-evaluate his "ailing shoulder". Team doctors and Blazer's front office types sent him back pretty much right away. They called it a "shoulder contusion" at the time and cleared him to keep playing. Hell, most people don't know this but Rudy had accupuncture on his back in Europe for the tournment. Is this raising any red flags for anyone else? Or is it really just me?

Why are we risking our international players exacerbating their sore bodies by letting them play in Eurobasket instead of resting or looking at surgery as an option in the offseason? We could have both Nic and Rudy right now if the team had been more cautious. It's one thing to lose Oden again at this point. We can't prevent that from happening. But we have control over guys playing overseas in the offseason. We could have said no, stay home and rest just like Brandon Roy is doing. But we didn't and now here we are dealing with the aftermath of what looks like it will be a really frustrating season for Rip City faithful.