A serious analysis of the Blazers and Injuries

As a homer, it definately seems like the Blazers have more than their fair share of injuries. I don't think I have to rehash them all, but are there environmental factors in play?

- Does the "Nateball" style of play put the players at a greater risk of injury than other styles of play? Does his substitution patterns put players at increased risk due to them being overtired from prolonged play with no rest and/or sitting on the bench too long to loosen back up for gameplay once re-inserted back into the game?

- Is the Blazer training staff and doctors, and the way they prepare players for gameplay actually contibuting to the player's injuries?

- Are the floors at either the practice facility or at the Rose Garden harder/softer/more or less forgiving to impact, that's contributing to the deterioration of knees and legs?

- Does the day-to-day scheduling of practices/travel/gameplay/rest in any way contribute to the injuries? Are players not being given enough time to recover after workouts, or being given too much time off and their muscles atrophying to the point of not being able to withstand the pounding of an NBA game?

I can't believe that over the last 5-7 years of freakish, seemingly never-ending string of player injuries isn't at least influenced by something the team is doing that other teams aren't.

 

If you draft and trade for players with red flags on their physicals or guys who have had tendencies to injuries don't act so shocked when they get injured. The only thing fluky is that the injuries seem to be happening so clustered together.

 

"It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."

I do wonder if Nate's hard practices and ability to motivate players to play at 110% every night doesn't wear them down prematurely. Where a player like LMA looks soft and lazy in comparison, but in reality... well, you know... I can't say it. I can't bring myself to say it. But you know what I mean about effort and longevity and all that.

But more likely, it is a steady string of picks and trades for guys with red flags, like Nik said. That all seems to have a fairly well-documented history.

 

This isn't just 5-7 years of bad injury history. It goes to the Walton/Thompson/Bowie days. I swear the Rose Quarter is on some Indian burial ground or something.

 

One thing you can say, though, about the early 90s and late 90s/early 2000s Blazers, was that they were healthy. Injuries didn't stop them from winning the title, other/better teams (and themselves, in the case of 2000) did that.

 

I definitely think there's some kind of bad juju going on. Maybe the team needs to bring in a medicine man or something.

 

we could make a screen play out of this. "Ghost Busters 3: Exorcism of the Rose Garden"

 

Actually, the knee injury suffered by Kersey definitely had a negative effect on his career. And lest we forget, the knees of Sabonis kept him from destroying Shaq.

 

Sabonis's knees were gone before he ever donned a Blazer Jersey.

 

Yeah, we got Sabonis at like 40% health, but even at 40% he was still amazing.

 

His knees were fine. He had bad achilles tendons.

 

Right about Kersey, but that injury happened AFTER the Blazers title runs. And, like was said about, Sabonis' knees were long wrecked before he even put on a Portland jersey.... for those limitations, though, he was still a top 5 NBA center and played mostly healthy during his time here.

 

I honestly think if sabonis had started in the nba and not had bad knees he would be considered one of the best players ever.

 

You are right, my bad. Some Blazer historian I am.

Sabonis on the early 90s Blazer teams, had the Soviet Union let him come play in the NBA in his prime.... I don't think even MJ could have overcome that.

 

I think it all comes down to bad Blazer fan karma for being so negative. Every negative post in here takes a little meniscus from every player. That is as sound a theory as any in the OP's thread.

 

Geez guy, wrong again. The Soviet Union had nothing to do with Sabonis not joining the Blazers sooner. He could have played here as early as 1989, but chose to play in Spain, for several years, instead. Due to his injury history, he preferred the shorter, easier schedule (and sunny weather) of playing in Spain over Portland. It probably didn't hurt that he was considered a god there, won multiple titles and MVP awards.

 

Yeah, the Russian mob had NOTHING to do with his choice of venue. Nothing at all.

 

Sabonis was Spanish?