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Steve Kerr raised concerns that the NBA's increased pace of play and condensed schedule has led to a surge in soft tissue injuries. Anthony Davis, Ty Jerome, Dylan Harper, Ja Morant and Jrue Holiday are currently out with calf strains, while over the past two days Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wemanyama and Stephon Castle have been ruled out with additional strains.

"[The Warriors' medical staff] believes that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage is factoring into these injuries," Kerr said.

The NBA is playing at its fastest average pace since the 1988-89 season. 

"Across the league, everyone understands that it's easier to score if you beat the opponent down the floor, get out in transition," Kerr said. "But when everybody's doing that, the games are much higher-paced. Everyone has to cover out to 25 feet because everybody can shoot 3s. We have all the data. Players are running faster and further [than] before. We're trying to do the best we can, but we basically have a game every other night. It's not an easy thing to do."

Kerr is in favor of shortening the NBA schedule from 82 games to 72 or even fewer.

"We literally haven't had a single practice on this road trip," Kerr said. "Not one. We've been gone a week or longer. Eight days, not one practice. It's just game, game, game. So not only is there no recovery time, there's no practice time. What was different was back in the day, you did have four [games] in five nights, which was not great, but then you'd have four days between games. You'd take a day off and have a couple good practices."

Kerr is skeptical that the NBA will seriously examine reducing the schedule due to the financial implications.

"The tricky part is all the constituents would have to agree to take less revenue," Kerr said. "In 2025 in America, good luck in any industry. Imagine some big company saying, 'You know what, we're not as concerned about our stock price. We're actually concerned with employing people and giving people a stable job and making our product better.' That's not happening. You know that."

Via Anthony Slater/The Athletic

Kerr isn't wrong about the injuries being related to pace of game. But he's dead wrong about the need for reducing games per season. Rosters have been increased so that players can play reduced minutes. Nobody on his team is averaging over 31.3 MPG, and that is how it should be.

But to blame the NBA for not taking care of their employees is ridiculous. Of course they don't want to sacrifice revenue. But ask arena employees and people working concessions if they want fewer work days in a year. Ask local bars and restaurants if they can survive with fewer game days each year. The NBA provided a living for far more people than the guys on the court.

So, if you want some of the richest young men in the world to have a few more days off each year, maybe you should let them skip a few practices. There is an entire community revolving around the NBA, and most of them are just making a living!

Pickled Prunes wrote:Kerr isn't wrong about the injuries being related to pace of game. But he's dead wrong about the need for reducing games per season. Rosters have been increased so that players can play reduced minutes. Nobody on his team is averaging over 31.3 MPG, and that is how it should be.

But to blame the NBA for not taking care of their employees is ridiculous. Of course they don't want to sacrifice revenue. But ask arena employees and people working concessions if they want fewer work days in a year. Ask local bars and restaurants if they can survive with fewer game days each year. The NBA provided a living for far more people than the guys on the court.

So, if you want some of the richest young men in the world to have a few more days off each year, maybe you should let them skip a few practices. There is an entire community revolving around the NBA, and most of them are just making a living!

Amen to that, brother!

Pickled Prunes wrote:Kerr isn't wrong about the injuries being related to pace of game. But he's dead wrong about the need for reducing games per season. Rosters have been increased so that players can play reduced minutes. Nobody on his team is averaging over 31.3 MPG, and that is how it should be.

But to blame the NBA for not taking care of their employees is ridiculous. Of course they don't want to sacrifice revenue. But ask arena employees and people working concessions if they want fewer work days in a year. Ask local bars and restaurants if they can survive with fewer game days each year. The NBA provided a living for far more people than the guys on the court.

So, if you want some of the richest young men in the world to have a few more days off each year, maybe you should let them skip a few practices. There is an entire community revolving around the NBA, and most of them are just making a living!

Well said bro

Underreporting of rampant PED Usage with a fast pace is injuries t waiting to happen