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Greg Dickerson reported on the CSN broadcast that Jermaine O'Neal will not require surgery and will be out 4 weeks to rehab. It was added that if he did have surgery it would "minor cleaning out" and not a major procedure.
Update: Here are some quotes from Ainge. (Emphasis mine)
Surgery not in the cards - The Boston Globe
"This is a good option,’’ Ainge said. "I think he feels like if he gets himself in better shape, and [gets] the strength, then he’ll be ready to give us an effort that we haven’t seen this year out of him.’’
...we'll take the next four weeks to do nothing but work to build up his glutes and quads, with the sole purpose of that. So he'll be rehabbing to build strength in his leg to get ready for the end of the season.''
"I would say the purpose is to get him ready to play in late-season and postseason play, with no restrictions,'' Ainge said. "I mean, his first night there might be, but the purpose is to get him back 100 percent.''
"I mean, there's no guarantee, but I think the wear and tear on the knee, he might have overdone it - he wasn't in as good a shape as he could have been, maybe came back a little too soon,'' Ainge said. "But he got a second opinion from a doctor in New York and our medical staff thinks that he should be back without restriction.''
So if you are scoring at home, I see 4 references to him being back to full strength or without restriction and one caveat that "there's no guarantee." Which leaves us, I guess, with an optimistic, hopeful GM and probably a little spin, but what else would you expect?
We can't go back and not give him the MLE, that's water under the bridge. He's guaranteed through next year so trading him isn't much of an option. The bottom line is that all we can do is wait and see. Considering what we've gotten from Shaq (a complete bargain/steal of a deal), I'm pretty content with the net gain of those two thus far. And I'll sign up for some of that optimism and hopeful spin to go along with my healthy skepticism and realistic expectations.