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Notes on the Injury Crisis

Jared Dubin

Jared Dubin

— 7 min read
Notes on the Injury Crisis

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I saw this tweet yesterday about all the players who are currently injured, and it was really wild to consider. (And it didn't even include guys like Jalen Brunson and Bam Adebayo, among several others.)

About a half-hour after seeing that list, I saw the quotes from Steve Kerr attributing the injuries, at least in part, to the way the game is played.

"[The Warriors' medical staff] believes that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage is factoring into these injuries. ...

"Across the league, everyone understands that it's easier to score if you beat the opponent down the floor, get out in transition. But when everybody's doing that, the games are much higher-paced. Everyone has to cover out to 25 feet because everybody can shoot 3s. We have all the data. Players are running faster and further [than] before. We're trying to do the best we can, but we basically have a game every other night. It's not an easy thing to do."

The Warriors' medical staff is right. Players are running faster and farther than ever before. And it's not that close. Here's the data, via GeniusIQ tracking:

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