This post is pretty self explanatory. It’s a really tough spot right now, and yes, the Blazers are more banged up than most at the current time. Some teams have been in worse shape at times this season like Memphis and New Orleans.
26 different teams are in action Saturday and Sunday, teams playing both days are counted twice.
20 of those teams have at least 4 players out with injuries. Not counting players that are questionable and still may not play. Not counting players that are out because they are down with their g league teams.
The teams that have less than 4 players OUT:
Knicks: 1 player out (OG Anunoby)
Magic: 2 players out with injury (Banchero, Mo Wagner. + 2 guys down with the g league teams)
Kings – 1 out (sabonis + 3 g league)
Sixers – 3 out (Embiid, Oubre, Bona + Edgcombe QUEST)
Raptors – 1 out (poeltl + Collin Murray-Boyles QUEST)
Lakers – no injuries (2 g league, including Bronny)
I realized after I put this together I did not include Boston. 1 out (Tatum, plus 3 g league guys)
This is very clearly a league wide thing that just about everyone is dealing with. It sucks… but no excuses, your opponent likely is beat up too.
The Blazers obviously have:
OUT
Dame – out for the year
Wesley – couple more months
Tisse – reevaluated in a week or 2
Scoot – reevaluated in 2-4 weeks
Jrue – reevaluated in 1-2 weeks
Sharpe – doesn’t sound like anything long term
QUEST
DC – rolled left ankle last night, came back in but sat the 4th (was fouled on the play, but there was no whistle. Weird). Doesn’t seem long term
Rob – back to back, probably going to sit out at OKC or Milwaukee.
There are 10 games between now and 12/18.
By then, Jrue will hopefully be good. Sharpe and DC too. Tisse in theory will be back. Rob will still split B2B’s. And Scoot should be really close to coming back.
Dame and Wesley will be the only players that are currently on the injury report that will be out for an extended period of time.
Obviously anything can happen.
By that time, there are still 50+ games left in the season, with a lighter strength of schedule than they will have played to that point, and by quite a bit. There are a lot of tough games on the schedule, but this team has beaten tough teams. And lost to teams they should have beaten on paper. That’s the NBA.
The west has had a lot of teams dealing with long injury lists. A number of teams are currently winning at a clip below expectations (LAC, Mem, Sac) and others are doing the opposite (PHX, Utah, Blazers).
So what does all of this mean? It means as Blazers fans we are excited at what this team could look like if fully healthy. It means that if this team can get through the next 10ish games , there is a great chance to be in very solid play in contention. Depending on everyone’s (Including Portland’s) health, they could content for an even higher postseason seeding.
Yeah, injuries suck. We want to see our best guys play, and grow and excel. But, we’ve seen guys who were out of the rotation impress at times. But it’s the NBA, everyone goes through it. The Blazers are not cursed. They are not alone dealing with this. The medical staff does a great job and didn’t break Blake Wesley’s foot, or tear scoot’s hammy.
It’s going to be fine, this team is still in good shape for the remainder of this year (at this time), and are setting themselves up for continued growth into next year.
Also, if you’re talking about this team needing to start tanking because the injuries are piling up, you are a total loser with a loser mentality.
I was putting thoughts together for the Section 113 Podcast that Chad and I will record on Tuesday, and thought I should share some of those raw thoughts here as I put them together for a radio segment. So here you go.
13 comments
The nba has their hit squad out
i love everything about this post.
I wonder what percentage of out players are for rest or long term season injuries
Edit: went and looked, it’s not nearly as many as I would have expected
This guy knows ball
Feels like the league front loaded the schedule way too much to try and keep teams healthy until the playoffs, but it’s just called hard attention to it during the season opening & cup games. Bodies aren’t used to the pace and season yet
Also, best part about reddit is a team employee rightfully calling out a part of the fan base as losers 😂
All our injuries play guard which is pretty unique.
I knew the downvote was coming. I wonder if it’s that one same dude who downvotes all of my posts. Can’t make everyone happy
Good post, and I agree. We will be fine near the end of the season. Very excited to see what the team looks like with Scoot back and playing his full minutes again.
Logged into my Reddit account for the first time in years to upvote this. Thanks, Travis. This is good context and I appreciate you doing your part to help cooler heads prevail. We’ve lost a few games we should have won, but it’s been a fun start to the season and I feel good about continuing to watch the team compete and improve from here on out.
NBA average possessions is highest (100.8) since 89′ at current pace and Blazers are even above that at 102.
The way I look at it is that every additional possession incurs an additional fraction of a percentage for injury. More possessions equate to more rebounds, more contested layups,more loose balls, etc… more injuries
Did we win today?
I agree with everything except this sentence: “Also, if you’re talking about this team needing to start tanking because the injuries are piling up, you are a total loser with a loser mentality.”
Like, I get the sentiment, I don’t like when people do this, but people who are literally paid by the Trail Blazers should not be insulting their fans no matter how wrong those fans are. A serious, well-argumented post like this does more to disarm people like that.
I know it’s hard when you see people shitting on the team, but you should remember that most of them are like reactionary teenagers. Responding to immaturity with insults is well… immature. Those kids put way less thought into their shit-posting than you did in this post so I really feel this sentence is uncalled for.
Basketball is played for the fans, even the shitty ones. You don’t see the managers in Walmart make social media posts saying their customers are losers cause they are wrongly complaining about something involving their store. Customers are not always right, but it became a saying for a reason.
There’s a way to stick up for the team without saying “hey btw you’re losers” to a group of kids. I’d say the entire rest of the post was the right way to go about it and, once more – i do agree with everything else.
From sport betting perspective, it’s been more work to cruise through the injury reports