20 games or so are left in the season, meaning injuries are beginning to take their toll as many star players have begun sitting out of games in order to prepare for the postseason and offseason.
One major problem for stars like center Nikola Jokic and point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, prioritizing their health may cause them to miss out on major end-of-season awards like the MVP.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic both are heavy favorites for the award, with the former being the defending champion, finals MVP and MVP title holder. While the latter has earned three MVPs in his entire career and is gunning for the top spot for most triple-doubles in league history.
The rule is that a player cannot miss more than 17 games or else they are ineligible for end-of-season awards, which is a 65 games minimum in an 82-game season.
I will be frank with you: this rule sucks.
There is no reason that the NBA should be enforcing such a high amount of minimum games when the game is consistently evolving to be more competitive, faster in pace and quicker in momentum, which in turn causes more injuries.
I wrote a little about the increase in injuries in the NFL, it seems to be a common trend among professional sports leagues that the increase in momentum leads to more serious injuries.
Sitting out is almost a necessity for the best players in the league to play consistently at a high level, especially in time for the postseason in a long, 82-game slugfest of a season.
Unfortunately, managing injuries is more of a headache than just losing eligibility for awards, it attracts negative press from fans around the league, and also could even lead to fines from the league itself.
For the longest time, people did not like center Joel Embiid and his play style, arguing that his reluctance to play games against tougher opponents was rooted in his personality and his lack of drive for the game.
Embiid has played in 484 games in his career in the NBA and has sat out over 400 games.
Naturally, this raises many concerns about the former MVP winner and his passion for the game, as many criticized Embiid for his lack of drive.
This couldn’t be further from the case.
One of my favorite sports articles ever written by Dotun Akintoye on ESPN, called Joel Embiid sees you, covers a good portion of the controversy that the Philadelphia 76ers endured recently with Embiid’s more scrutinized news coverage, including his long-term injury being managed by an intern, the locker room controversies and more.
I highly suggest you read this when you get the time, as it elaborates on who Embiid is as a person and how his poor injury management has affected him and his game.
Since Embiid is compared to Jokic’s impact and effect, it would make sense for them to sit a similar number of games per minute played and energy spent. However, Embiid’s injury inflation was due to numerous outside sources.
This doesn’t completely negate the other injuries faced, as many younger players also have to be careful with how much they are playing, such as center Victor Wembanyama.
Wembanyama has sat out 13 games this season,meaning four more games will prevent him from any awards, even though he was a favorite for Defensive Player of the Year.
Even at the age of 22, the strain still takes its toll due to the high amount of usage and stress that comes with the level the game is at, and what is required of such a versatile player and position.
This has even been seen at the college level, with top projected draft pick shooting guard Darryn Peterson having subbed himself out over concerns with a lingering injury.
This has garnered mostly negative results for the most part, tanking Peterson’s draft stock and questioning his desire and drive for the game, while raising concerns about injury-prone players at such a young age.
Peterson’s talent is undeniable, dating back to as early as 2024, yet the practice of caring for an injury is so complicated that it hinders his stock.
A recent instance of injury management issues was seen with the Indiana Pacers team, who was fined 100,000 for violating the player participation policy, even without checking in with team doctors.
The league is obviously trying to prevent tanking, where players are sitting out on purpose to get a better shot at a better draft pick, but there is no surprise that with the level the game is played right now, these injuries are legit, and finding the difference is harder than it seems.
Another example is that the NBA is sending its own private investigator to verify if one of the star players on the Utah Jazz actually got hurt and to verify their MRI.
If it gets to this point, it is ridiculous. Sure, this year’s draft class is amazing, but are we sure this isn’t just an actual injury from how much time and energy goes into each possession?
What is the stem of all these problems? There seems to be a multifaceted problem in the layers of the sport itself, not just the league, a paradigm shift in the importance of injuries and load management.
One thing is for certain: injuries must take priority.
With the trends continuing to rise, there must be an extensive look into injury prevention both on the league level and organizationally.
Next time a player gets injured, especially if it’s something more common, understand that the injury might not be quite as simple as it seems.