The Portland Trail Blazers have endured plenty of injuries at the start of their 2025-26 NBA season. Fans tuned in hoping to see a brand new team with an exciting new play style. Instead they’re getting the same six players over and over, stuck on an endless hamster wheel while potential help sits on the bench in street clothes.
Is there a reason for this sad development? Could it have something to do with Portland’s style of play? That’s the concern of this Blazer’s Edge Mailbag question.
I hear a lot of people complaining about injuries on the Blazers this season, especially the guards. I also remember watching them play an aggressive style of full court defense at the start of the season. Is it possible that the aggressive defense that was meant to wear down our opponents over the course of a game is wearing down our own team over the course of the season?
Let’s take a look at the injured players who have played the fewest games for Portland this season. Here they are, along with the number of games they’ve played so far this year out of 20 possible.
As you can see, two injuries had nothing to do with the season at all, two have been to players who have a history of health issues, and of the three that actually happened in the course of play without prior precedent, one was minor (costing the player only four games) and another happened to a 35-year-old.
We can’t say that Portland’s style of play has nothing to do with these injuries. It might. But we can’t draw a direct correlation between injuries and anything that’s going on in the current season yet. There’s just too much noise obscuring the data.
I will say that if Portland’s style of play is having this dramatic of an effect this early in the season, they’re in big trouble. We’re barely passing the quarter-mark of the year. If all of this is related to their current choices, they won’t make it to the halfway point. They might have to just forfeit the season!
Best guess is that the two are only mildly related. Lots of teams are trying to play fast this year. Some of them have injuries, some less so.
That guess will be tested in the months to come. Somewhere around February we should be able to look back and see who has been injured for the Blazers, how long they’ve been down, and how that compares to past seasons, both their own and the team’s. If Portland’s lineup still looks like a hospital ward, maybe we’ll be able to draw correlations to their playing style. If not, or if the only injured people are the ones you’d suspect naturally, there’s probably not a point.
Either way, these injuries are frustrating but not conclusive. There’s no reason to point to, or alter, Portland’s style of play yet. The bigger concern as the season unfolds might be fatigue. That could evidence itself in injuries, but dipping shooting percentages and number of fast break points scored/allowed are also items to watch. Those might be just as indicative of the sustainability of Portland’s approach as games lost to injury.
Until then, I think we have to face the reality that, with Lillard, Williams, Thybulle, and maybe now Henderson and Holiday (depending on continued ills), this team was built with the possibility of injuries playing a major role. That’s not a pleasant reality of NBA life, but it’s one of the potential factors. If the Blazers get, and stay, healthy we’re likely to see a different team than the one we’re getting now. If not, well, the best laid plans…
Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to get to as many as possible!