Steve Kerr sounds the alarm again

The NBA might be imposed a minimum number of 65 games contested to qualify for individual trophies, the “attendance” rate of the league’s superstars is in clear decline. Their injuries, on the other hand, continue to mount, and the last few days are a good example of that…

For reminders: Trae Young, Cam Thomas, Anthony Davis, Fred VanVleet, Kawhi Leonard, Bradley Beal, Ja Morant, Ty Jerome, Tyler Hero, Bam Adebayo, Dejonte Murray, Jordan Poole, Zion Williamson, Jalen Brunson, Jaylen Williams, Paolo Mareibo, currently George Domagan, Emby Banchero, Kate Domagan, E. Banchero. injuries, and they add to the Lillard-Halliburton-Irving-Tatum quartet, which also paid a high price for a hellish streak at the end of last season.

And in the last few days, it was the turn of Stephon Castle (kook), Giannis Antetokounmpo (substance) that Victor Vembanyama (calf) from falling. Enough to organize a magnificent All-Star cripple! And to think that the regular season started less than a month ago…

The players are already in the red!

Contrary to what Joe Dumars announced when he was still the league’s vice president of basketball operations, there does indeed appear to be a correlation between injury risk and matchup order. To this observation, Steve Kerr adds that the pace of the game, much higher than when he was a player, further promotes this risk, further weakening the soft tissues of the whole body, especially the calves.

“Our medical staff believes that wear and tear, speed of play, pace and mileage play a role in these injuries.”he explained. >”All over the league, everyone has realized that it’s easier to score if you outrun the opponent and go out in transition. But when everyone does that, the games go much faster. Everyone has to cover seven yards, because everyone can shoot threes. We have all the data. Players are running faster and further than before. We try to do our best, but it’s not easy for us every other night.”

Not surprisingly, the statistics collected by ESPN very well confirm the trend stated by the Golden State coach: the game has never been so fast and the players have never run so much and at such a speed: 54 kilometers were covered by all players on average during the match, an average of 6.4 km/h.

Taking a cue from the Pacersmany teams decided to push the tempo as much as possible, especially Miami pushing a tempo that simply hasn’t been seen in 35 years in the big leagues!

If we present the average speed of the players in attack and defense, we see that this season there is a very clear increase, and it is not a simple effect of the beginning of the season, because if we take the data at the same time of the season, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26, there remains an extremely clear explosion.

NBA players’ average offensive speed (Avg Speed ​​Off) compared to their average defensive speed (Avg Speed ​​Def) at the start of the 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons

What solutions?

NBA teams’ average offensive speed (Off Speed) compared to their winning percentage (V%) in the 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons

Offensive speed, however, is not a guarantee of success in the NBA, on the contrary, because often young teams play fast to compensate for the lack of efficiency in the half of the court.

Last year, to help players absorb this increase in game speed, Steve Kerr has already suggested modeling the calendar for the post-Covid season with a 72-game regular season, but the NBA isn’t really into that, mostly for economic reasons. In the end, after less than a month of competition, his Warriors, whose leaders are all veterans, are already sticking out their tongues.

“We didn’t have any training during our trip”he added. “None. We’re gone for a week or more. Eight days, not a single practice. It’s just match, match, match. Not only is there no time to recover, but there’s no time to train. Which was different then, because we had four games in five nights, which wasn’t great, but then we had four days between games. We took a day off and did a good workout.”

To make matters worse, Golden State is already on its fifth “back” of the season, and is expected tonight in Miami. after losing last night in Orlando. Well aware of the economic reality that reigns in the NBA, Steve Kerr actually has no illusions, because playing fewer games would mean less money for the NBA, which seems unimaginable despite the record profits the league generates.

“The problem is that all actors should accept less income. But in 2025, in the United States? I say good luck to all sectors of activity that want to go down this path. Imagine a big company that says: ‘You know what, we don’t care so much about our stock prices. What’s important to us is to hire people, offer them stable employment and improve our products. This is not going to happen. You know that well » concludes the coach of Golden State realistically.