Why were players so much more durable 15 years ago?

[Hook_Em]

Not one guy in the top-15 MVP voting for all NBA teams missed more than 9 games in 2011.
.

.

[tsherkin]

Increase in the need and usage of lateral movement/angular velocity changes would be a good starting point. The game is far more horizontal and less linear than it used to be.

[UcanUwill]

I think people just generally played through injuries back then, while now teams and players saving themselves for pay offs far more. Players now sit because of basically every minor injury, just wasnt the case back then.

But also, having far more spacing, it requires more lateral movement that should lead to some of the more injuries.

[Inigo Montoya]

Why play 82 games when you can play 50 and get paid the same amount of money? (until the recent CBA changes).

[Hook_Em]

Sorry y’all those graphs werent supposed to be massive.

[warriorschamps]

Different game now, more spacing, much faster pace, etc, etc.

[JRoy]

Not one guy in the top-15 MVP voting for all NBA teams missed more than 9 games in 2011.
.

.

The end of shame.

[JM00n69]

I remember seeing a graphic during the '01 finals that showed all the injuries AI had during his faily short pro career at that time. It was unreal how he was Pretty sure he waas averegaing over 40mpg, probably 45 during the playoffs.

Stockton missed like 12 games total over 19 years and going deep into playoffs. Probably genes and the meals they had growing up as teens weren't fast food.

[tsherkin]

I remember seeing a graphic during the '01 finals that showed all the injuries AI had during his faily short pro career at that time. It was unreal how he was Pretty sure he waas averegaing over 40mpg, probably 45 during the playoffs.

Sure, but he was a skinny, 5'11 dude smashing himself into the paint over and over and over again. Him being injured was like KJ being injured during his career.

Stockton missed like 12 games total over 19 years and going deep into playoffs. Probably genes and the meals they had growing up as teens weren't fast food.

Well, different style of play, too. Much more of a shooter, much more screen usage than dribble penetration all the way to the rim. Considerably lower scoring load. Very different type of player. One was an athleticism-reliant slasher and dribble penetrator. The other was a PnR maestro with a much better jumper. TOTALLY different impacts on the body.

[LockoutSeason]

And those players from 2011 had way more missed games than players from 10-15 years before them.

The game has gotten progressively tougher to play as time passed. Wilt would not be averaging 48.5 MPG today.

[lambchop]

The ability to play 73+ games in a given season doesn't necessarily make a player durable though. Most of the players on that list experienced incredibly precipitous declines at some point in their career or had injuries that completely derailed their careers. Rose, Stoudemire and Griffin can hardly be considered durable. Chris Paul was notoriously injured in the playoffs with his perennial hamstring issues.

Kobe is a unique case. He was essentially always dealing with injuries, but simply refused to stop playing. I wouldn't consider him durable. He was just ridiculously mentally tough and driven, but his body was fragile. I can still remember him tearing his rotator cuff on an uncontested 2 handed dunk.

Players and teams figured out that resting a healthy player and not playing through minor injuries will prolong a player's career and help him maintain level production.

[og15]

Why play 82 games when you can play 50 and get paid the same amount of money? (until the recent CBA changes).

Likely because your team would not do very well. Obviously I know you're using hyperbole, but that is definitely not the issue at hand here.

Now we can accept that teams are more willing to implement a couple of rest games in, so a guy who would play 82 games in the past might play 76-77 games instead, but that still doesn't account for all the difference.

Of course maybe there's a factor of more older guys playing longer with bigger roles, that's possible. Maybe there's a factor of guys whose careers would have been forced to end being extended further than they would in the past, but it also means fewer games played, but that will only account for a few guys.

If you look at this years top 25 leaders in ppg, a lot of guys with 70+ games, but then you have Giannis at 67 and Jokic at 69, but we know they aren't missing games for fun.

Then we have Luka 50 (injuries and possible conditioning), KD 62 (old, injury prone), Maxey 52 (injuries and tanking team), Brunson 65 (injury), Banchero 46 (injured early), Ball 47 (consistently injured), Lillard 58 (blood clot), Davis 51 (injuries), Kyrie 50 (big injury), Zion 30 (oft injured), Wemby 46 (blood clot), Wagner 60 (injury).

We don't even really have guys missing with playable injuries, maybe just 2 or so we could cite that on teams that gave up.

[NZB2323]

In 2012 with the lockout season teams were playing 4 games in 5 nights and Derrick Rose felt pressure to play, and then he tore his ACL in the playoffs.

At the same time the Spurs were resting their starters on back to backs. People said, do we want to push ourselves and get injured like Derrick Rose, or rest like the Spurs do?

[Mr B]

Not one guy in the top-15 MVP voting for all NBA teams missed more than 9 games in 2011.
.

.

Cortisone, ice, and pain killers.

[Exp0sed]

I remember seeing a graphic during the '01 finals that showed all the injuries AI had during his faily short pro career at that time. It was unreal how he was Pretty sure he waas averegaing over 40mpg, probably 45 during the playoffs.

Sure, but he was a skinny, 5'11 dude smashing himself into the paint over and over and over again. Him being injured was like KJ being injured during his career.

Stockton missed like 12 games total over 19 years and going deep into playoffs. Probably genes and the meals they had growing up as teens weren't fast food.

Well, different style of play, too. Much more of a shooter, much more screen usage than dribble penetration all the way to the rim. Considerably lower scoring load. Very different type of player. One was an athleticism-reliant slasher and dribble penetrator. The other was a PnR maestro with a much better jumper. TOTALLY different impacts on the body.

Nah, Stockton was just insanely strong, tough and durable. sure, the playstyle helped but alot of players played like Stockton and didn't have anywhere near his durability and longevity

Sent from my SM-A055F using RealGM mobile app

[Celts17Pride]

Because they were not entitled like today's players. The Durant, Irving, George, Harden, Leonard, Lebron, Westbrook, AD, Beal etc. generation changed all that.

[scrabbarista]

I remember seeing a graphic during the '01 finals that showed all the injuries AI had during his faily short pro career at that time. It was unreal how he was Pretty sure he waas averegaing over 40mpg, probably 45 during the playoffs.

Stockton missed like 12 games total over 19 years and going deep into playoffs. Probably genes and the meals they had growing up as teens weren't fast food.

Obviously, their habits as adults/NBA players made a huge difference, too.

[tsherkin]

Nah, Stockton was just insanely strong, tough and durable. sure, the playstyle helped but alot of players played like Stockton and didn't have anywhere near his durability and longevity

I mean, Stockton was ALSO a tough bastard, yes. But the stuff I mentioned were significant contributing factors.

[G R E Y]

CP3 and Barnes are on the brink of playing and starting all 82 games this season.

They are joined by Champagnie (81 games and slated to play the last one) and Castle who has played 80 games, so will finish the season having played in 81.

That's two starters, and Castle who has started in 46, soon to be 47 games, and basically bench player Champagnie has had 28 starts. I wonder which teams in the league have four players with at least 80 games played?

Availability and durability are types of abilities.

[G R E Y]

I remember seeing a graphic during the '01 finals that showed all the injuries AI had during his faily short pro career at that time. It was unreal how he was Pretty sure he waas averegaing over 40mpg, probably 45 during the playoffs.

Stockton missed like 12 games total over 19 years and going deep into playoffs. Probably genes and the meals they had growing up as teens weren't fast food.

Obviously, their habits as adults/NBA players made a huge difference, too.

I don't know what basketball players of old did, but like in between periods Leafs players drank beer lol

For all the changes to the game, there was just something different in the mental approach that not as many have today.