Shortened pre-season sore spot around NBA
Add DeRozan to unusually long list of injuries in early going — coaches diagnose what’s up
SAN FRANCISCO— It was a wonderful idea well received when the NBA decided to lop about 10 days off the pre-season, to put into a more spread-out regular season that would afford more teams better rest for key players and lessen what is a tremendous physical grind.
But with every action comes an equal and opposite reaction, the science has proven, and there might be a need for a bit more study before this becomes a regular fall phenomenon.
As Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan said in the locker room Monday night in San Antonio — with his left leg encased in ice from the thigh to below his knee after a particularly gruelling early-season game — the toll of going from zero to 100 with much less preparation than they’d normally have was evident.
And there are some people wondering if there isn’t at least a small correlation between a rash of first-week injuries and asking players to go full bore after cutting their preparation time.
DeRozan did not take part in Tuesday’s practice here because of a left thigh bruise. He will be re-evaluated Wednesday before the Raptors head to Oakland to face the Golden State Warriors.
He could very well have suffered a bruise in the third game of the season with a regular training camp, but anecdotal evidence is piling up.
“I don’t know — I am not a doctor — but that is a great question. That is a very fair question,” Toronto coach Dwane Casey said even before his all-star guard got banged up in a late-game collision in front of the San Antonio bench.
“The only thing I would say with that is, guys work so hard on their own in the summertime now. (It’s) not like in the old days where they would wait for camp to get in shape. Guys have their own strength coaches, nutritionists, own running coaches, so there is no reason they can’t be in great shape. But there could be something to that.”
There is no question that the vast majority of players now stay in great condition 12 months a year. They work in the gym and the weight room throughout the summer so they don’t lose the edge they need to even make it to the NBA, let alone thrive in a cutthroat business where competition is fierce. But good shape and good NBA game shape are different.
Some of the injuries being seen around the league truly are freak, one-off incidents:
Boston’s Gordon Hayward broke his ankle on a grotesque fall.
Toronto’s Jonas Valanciunas stepped on an opponent’s foot.
Brooklyn’s Jeremy Lin blew out his knee on a play that could happen any time, anywhere.
But sore knees (Houston’s Chris Paul), cranky muscles, tender feet (Milos Teodosic of the Clippers)? That might just be sudden wear and tear from going more quickly from the relaxing pre-season pace to regular-season intensity.
“There is some validity to the fact that there is 10 less days of pre-season,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters last weekend. “Our guys came in (to camp) in tremendous shape. But you still notice that, you feel that. You’re cramming in six games, less practices, and then all of a sudden that first game it was on. I don’t know how many, what percentage of the NBA players were truly ready, were physically ready for how fast and aggressive a real regular-season game is.”
Spoelstra’s team has been hit particularly hard, with Hassan Whiteside ( bruised knee), Rodney McGruder (tibia stress fracture) and Dion Waiters (ankle) all hobbled.
“People say 10 days doesn’t matter. It does,” Spoelstra said. “It does matter, but we’ll just have to see how it plays out with the rest of the league.” Everyone connected with the league thought there might be more than the usual number of sloppy games early in the season after the pre-season was cut basically in half. It made players ramp up their intensity to meet the physical nature of the game far more quickly than they ever have.
“Exactly,” Casey said. “Their rhythm is off, so it could be, but I don’t want to say it is or anything, but that is a great question.”