Is Bynum Finally on Road to Recovery?

Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

The Philadelphia 76ers received good news on their biggest offseason acquisition, which could help turn their year around.

According to Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com, the Sixers announced that Andrew Bynum’s knees are healing and dismissed the notion of there not being any such improvement throughout his lengthy recovery.

“His knees are healing,” general manager Tony DiLeo said. “He has been approved to increase his activity level, but still no timetable for his return.”

“We do have a revised rehab plan that we put together,” DiLeo continued. “As he goes through the different stages of the rehab program, if he reacts in a positive way we’ll move on to the next step. Basically about a six-step process.”

The six-step rehab process will start with Bynum riding a stationary bike and working on an anti-gravity treadmill before he can test his knee in high-impact drills.

“The bone cruise is healed, so that’s good,” said Bynum. “Still a cartilage issue in my left knee. We’re working on a plan right now. I still have a mechanical issue with the knee, but I think that will resolve itself without surgery.”

That’s a significant upgrade on his injury prognosis considering the last time we heard from Bynum’s camp, he re-aggravated his already fragile knee bowling. Bynum even assured the media that he would return to the court and play for the 76ers this season.

Still, it’s reasonable to think that Bynum won’t have much of an impact this campaign. He’s already missed the first quarter of the 2012-13 campaign and it doesn’t look good for him in coming back halfway through the season.

If he does come back. There’s also the understanding that Bynum won’t be in game shape and will have a minute cap on his gameplay for the first couple weeks. At the earliest, it’s reasonable to assume he would be 100 percent healthy three quarters through the season. In which case, the Sixers (currently 13-14) would have to come on strong in order to make any dent in the Eastern Conference standings. So let’s curb any playoff expectations until we get a confirmed prognosis on Bynum.