Mike Richman here, the host of the daily Locked On Blazers podcast, with your daily Locked On Blazers newsletter. Each day we bring you the biggest stories about the Blazers and the NBA, including the hottest links to other stories you need to read. Plus, Josh Lloyd delivers daily fantasy notes to crush your league.
In case you missed it...
The Future Is Now
For the first time in post-Damian Lillard era of the Portland Trail Blazers the vision for the future of the franchise moved out of the theoretical and into the literal. Read more —>
Robert Williams Is the Trail Blazers Best Center
Robert Williams was the Trail Blazers best player in Tuesday night’s bounce back win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Read more —>
Trail Blazers Address the ‘Elephants in the Room’
When you lose by 45 point at home 11 games into the season, you’re going to have to talk about it. Read more —>
League At Large
League At Large
Are injuries in the NBA really spiking?
It’s time to talk about injuries.
I held off on writing about the apparent rash, or rise, of early-season athlete injuries because there’s always some recency bias involved when the subject comes up. Are there really more injuries this year than any other? Do we have the data to support it? Is there a new, underlying cause? Or are injuries due to the same compounding mix of bad luck and the NBA’s 82-game schedule running into a long postseason, running into the offseason, running back into a brand new long regular season and the erosion of bodies this eventually leads to?
A report early this week showed early-season injuries were up 35%, and indeed ESPN’s list of injuries, at a glance, looks like a ferocious Christmas tree, lit up in blazing reds and yellows. A handful of teams (the Grizzlies, Pelicans, Raptors) are cobbling together rosters game-to-game depending on who’s still healthy. TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott ran a draft of the injured list this week and each team reads like an All-Star squad on steroids, and when Abbott printed out the league’s official injury report it was 10 pages long.
Injuries are definitely up — but why?
The Paris Olympics proved extra playing time for a few top-tier stars, but most of them remain healthy. The early season schedule hasn’t served up any more back-to-backs to longer road game stretches, which tend to be more gruelling on athletes, than usual. However, when everything appears to be normal and the bodily price is anything but, perhaps it’s time to examine that “normal”.
The NBA’s current schedule of 82 games was adopted in 1967. Already, I’m sure your brain is picturing black and white basketball, that’s good. When you picture that grainy, glitchy footage, how fast is it going? The reality is that the game used to be a lot slower. Not just in its mechanics (think of an offensive passing sequence, the ball flipping from set of hands to hands at a speed that can be hard to follow), but the athleticism too. Bodies were moving slower. The game was still physical — the trope of players from the 80s and 90s complaining about the “softness” of current athletes is a trope for a reason — but full tilt sprinting, cutting, complex rotations, these weren’t the norm. Given that, the bodily mechanics were different. Guys weren’t stopping on a dime, pivoting hard, having to force their ligaments and muscles and bones into exacting motions with all sorts of volatile force behind them.
Katie Heindl is a credentialed NBA and WNBA writer, her bylines have appeared with The New York Times Magazine, SLAM, The Athletic, Yahoo Sports, Dime, Rolling Stone, among others. She writes the bestselling Substack, Basketball Feelings and is working on a book of the same name.
Home and Away
Analysis Should the Blazers shake things up in a major way and trade away their stars? (Blazer’s Edge)
Roster Portland’s Nassir Little has been assigned to the G-League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce. Here’s hoping this move gives him the opportunity to grow and shine with the Skyforce. (Blazer’s Edge)
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) holds his leg after a hard following a play against the Golden State Warriors during the first quarter at Paycom Center.|Photo by Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
This week in the fantasy basketball world has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows. A major talking point has been Chet Holmgren’s unfortunate injury, which has fantasy managers scrambling for replacements as the Oklahoma City Thunder adjust with potential lineup changes. Keep an eye on players like Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace — who might see increased minutes — and consider them as temporary pickups in deeper leagues.
Don’t let these episodes pass you by — stay locked in with the latest Locked On Blazers podcasts.
5 Game Road Trip Will Test the Trail Blazers + Rip City Remix Season Preview The road swing stats in OKC on Wednesday. Plus, a look at the Blazers G League affiliate.
Shaedon Sharpe Leads the Trail Blazers to a CLUTCH win over the Atlanta Hawks Sheadon Sharpe’s good. The Trail Blazers have real depth. A winning streak hath risen.
Portland’s Rebuild: Are the Trail Blazers Too Good to Tank? (or Did They Just Win 2 Games?) Justin Verrier of The Ringer joins the program to talk about the Trail Blazers present and future, discuss the necessity of trading veterans, and consider whether the Blazers are too good to tank.
