Yahoo Sports contributing NBA writer Tom Haberstroh and NBA writer Dan Devine discuss the growing trend of players missing more time due to injury this season. Check out the full conversation on “The Big Number” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Two scariest words in the NBA are calf strain, uh, because calf strains are up 40%, Uh, year over year through 20 games, according to Jeff Stotts of In-Streetclothes.com.
But the scarier number is that the time lost due to those injuries is up by 200%.
So, we saw 18 calf strains last season through 20 games, And they, uh, those 18 calf strains led to 36 games lost due to injury.
This year, 25; it goes from 18 to 25 calf strains through 20 games of this season, And then not 36 games lost, but 108 lost due to injury as a result of those calves Strains.
So, This is a very different environment right now, What we’re dealing with in the NBA, both from, I think, A medical side is, I think, after what happened to Tyrese Haliburton in the NBA Finals where He returned from a calf strain in Game 5, gutted out Game 6.
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And then in the opening minutes of Game 7, and against OKC.
It was awesome, right, Dan?
Awesome to see; didn’t seem like the calf was bothering him at all with those 33 pointers.
Against, uh, against OKC, and then he goes down pushing off that calf.
Um, that heel and, uh, having his Achilles rupture.
I think a lot of teams are looking at this situation, saying we don’t want that to happen.
Right?
And the really interesting thing is, I listed All those names.
Victor Wembanyama is back.
John Morant is back-ish from his calf strain dealing with, I think an ankle issue now.
I think teams are terrified to see another Achilles tear.
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But what is really interesting in the data is that Jeff Stout’s reporting to me that he has Over 400 instances of a calf strain in his database that covers over the past decade.
Only two of them have resulted in Achilles tears, and thats 2019 Kevin Durant in the NBA Finals for the Warriors and Tyrese Halliburton this past year in the NBA Finals.