Bogut says you’re “uneducated” if you think he’s injury prone

Andrew Bogut is right.

He’s also not answering the question I and others are asking about the trade that sent him from Milwaukee to the Bay Area essentially for Monta Ellis.

In a radio interview with 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, Bogut was asked about his injury history — he is currently out with a fractured ankle — and the perception that he is injury prone (via Sports Radio Interviews).

What I would say is I’ve only had one injury in my NBA career that was probably was because my core wasn’t strong enough, when I had a stress fracture in my back. … The last two injuries, I can’t control falling on my arm and breaking everything in my right arm. And I can’t control having a good defensive quarter in Houston … and falling on a foot. If you call that chronic, it’s pretty uneducated in my opinion. But the reality is I have been hurt, so I need to try and, I don’t know, maybe see a witch doctor in the offseason to get that bug away from me.”

He’s right. The horrific elbow injury and his ankle injury this seasons are flukes. He’s been unlucky. If you want more detail on this, Zach Lowe at Sports Illustrated has the definitive piece on this topic.

But that’s not really the question I have about the trade. Rather, it is “Can Bogut recover to anywhere near his former self?”

The pre-elbow injury Bogut was a borderline All-Star— 16 points (on 54 percent shooting), 10 rebounds a game, PER of 20.7, plus he was one of the best defensive centers in the game. But the post-injury Bogut has been pretty average. He’s still a good defensive center, which the Warriors need, but this Bogut isn’t worth giving up Ellis for. At least to me. If he bounces back to his old form I’d say the Warriors won the trade. It’s just a roll of the dice.

But Bogut is right, he’s not injury prone physically. The question is just recovery.