Just about a month into the NBA season, we’ve seen plenty of jaw dropping moments both on and off the floor. Basketball is being played at the fastest pace this century, and it’s leading to high scoring games and non stop action. However, it’s also led to a lot of star players missing time. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr claims the NBA’s faster pace combined with the condensed 82 game schedule is leading to more strain on the players bodies. The increase in soft tissue injuries is definitely cause for concern, as most recently we saw both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama get sidelined with muscle strains. Golden State’s medical staff believes the wear and tear, speed, pace, and mileage is all factoring into these injuries.

Steve Kerr has been very vocal in the past about his wishes for the NBA to shorten the season to 72 games. He mentions not only is there not enough time for recovery, but not even enough time to practice. He mentions that on their recent road trip, which spanned over a week, they hadn’t even practiced. They had no time to, going from game to game every other day. So now these players are just going game to game with no recovery and no real practice time. Following their recent road stretch, the Warriors have played a league high 17 games in a 29 day span across 12 different cities.

Naturally Kerr isn’t very optimistic that the league will entertain the thought of shortening the season for the financial implication. Kerr told the media to imagine a big company going “we’re not concerned with our stock price, we want to give people a stable job and make our product better” to which Kerr says “That’s not happening, you know that”.