I’m not going to say that is more of an aberration than the season prior but if you look at the league as a whole, last season was not normal and that’s not just the eye or smell test.
The average number of players sidelined per game due to injury, non-COVID-19 illness or rest this season was 5.1 (includes both teams), according to ESPN's Kevin Pelton, the highest since he started tracking it in 2009-10.
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Dealing with the coronavirus was the priority for the NBA in 2020-21, but as the end of the season nears,
data suggests the league saw a dramatic increase in injuries not related to COVID-19.
Some team health officials said the effects will drive how they manage player health for next season.
The average number of players sidelined per game due to injury, non-COVID-19 illness or rest this season was 5.1 (includes both teams), according to ESPN's Kevin Pelton,
the highest since he started tracking it in 2009-10. That does not include games missed by players in the health and safety protocols. The next highest season was 4.8, so 2020-21 was 5% higher.
The increase was even more pronounced when focusing on the league's stars. This season's
All-Stars missed 370 of a possible 1,944 games (19%), the highest percentage in a season in NBA history, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. They missed an average of 13.7 regular-season games each this year.
These types of injuries can be tied to fatigue and stress. Fear of an increase in these injuries grew more pronounced when the schedule condensed late in the season as teams made up games postponed due to COVID-19 issues.
There were 2,909 games lost to soft-tissue injuries this regular season, according to certified athletic trainer Jeff Stotts, who maintains the most authoritative public injury-tracking database that covers the NBA.
It's the second-highest figure Stotts has recorded since he began tracking in 2005-06. The most was 3,038 in the 2017-18 season, which was played in 82 games vs. the 72-game campaign this year.
"It's brutal in the aggregate," added an NBA general manager.