High-profile injuries follow short preseason
MIAMI — Less than one week into the season the NBA injury list is becoming a who’s who of brandname talent, with Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Lin likely out for the season, Chris Paul possibly out for a month, and several other known quantities sidelined for extended periods.
To Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, the timing might not necessarily be coincidental.
While the start of training camps remained on the same schedule this season, the NBA moved up the start of the regular season by a week in the hope of reducing fatigue by reducing back-to-back games. Now the question is whether reduced preparation has led to the increase in injuries.
“There is some validity to the fact that there is 10 less days of preseason,” Spoelstra said, going into Saturday night’s home opener against the Indiana Pacers, with Heat forward Rodney McGruder possibly lost for the season following Tuesday’s leg surgery and center Hassan Whiteside out indefinitely with a bruised left knee. “Our guys came in 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. And I don’t know how many, what percentage of the NBA players, were truly ready, and physically ready for how fast and aggressive a real regular-season game is.”
Like the Heat, the Pacers also entered shorthanded, with forward Glenn Robinson III to miss two months following ankle surgery and center Myles Turner out with neck and concussion issues.
“People say 10 days doesn’t matter. It does,” Spoelstra said of the lost practice time. “It does matter. But we’ll just have to see how it plays out with the rest of the league.”
While the Heat reduced their preseason schedule to six games from the previous standard of eight, some teams played three or four. For some teams, that meant more travel time and even fewer practices and conditioning sessions.
“I’m not saying that that’s the reason for any kind of injury right now,” Spoelstra said of the revised scheduling. “But that speeds up the whole process. A regular-season game definitely feels different than a preseason game.”
As for the Heat’s nagging injuries, both Dion Waiters, who has been dealing with a sore ankle since the end of last season, and forward Okaro White, who missed the opener with a shoulder strain, were available Saturday.
Waiters said it is about teams moving forward with who they have, as the Heat did during the second half of last season, even as injuries mounted.
“It happens, man. It sucks. But it’s the nature of the game. It comes with it,” Waiters said. “You can’t cry about it. At the end of the day, when we were winning, everything was fine, even when guys were hurt still. So we’re not going to make any excuses. We’re going to go out there, we’re going to play and we’re going to play to win. And that’s all we can do.”
The two undrafted rookie guards were allowed the additional time with the Heat because developmental-league training camps don’t open until Monday. That’s when the G League Sioux Falls Skyforce will begin their workouts.
Both prospects have been working with the Heat since the summer.
“That’s invaluable to be able to spend a summer with us, developing in our program: training camp, all of preseason, and then the first week of the regular season, where there’s a little bit more detail to everything, to the game planning, to preparing for games, all of that,” Spoelstra said. “So that should serve them well on their next step.”
The G League held its draft Saturday, with the Heat making three selections for the Skyforce:
Round 1, No. 14 pick: Kris Jenkins, 6-6 guard, Villanova.
Round 2, No. 8 pick: Jimmie Taylor, 6-10 forward, Alabama.
Round 3, No. 14 pick: Tre Burnette, 6-5 guard, South Dakota.
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