NBA Reports Show Load Management Isn’t Fruitful
This week, the NBA provided its clubs with data from comprehensive research that found no connection between load management players and a lower risk of injury.
NBA Reports Show Load Management Isn’t Fruitful
This was the outcome of an independent study using data from ten years of the NBA, in which experts in sports medicine considered the regular season load that players usually bear, the schedule, and the number of games played.
For years, there was doubt among certain league officials as to whether players who consistently took time off, even when playing back-to-back games, posed any risk of catastrophic injury.
With all the blowouts and load management going on, this is the only NBA slip I’m placing for tomorrow. Goodnight 🫡#GamblingTwitter #GamblingX #prizepicks #PrizePicksNBA #prizepicksPotd #prizepicksprops #PlayerPropBets pic.twitter.com/3KBsrVVggK
— Dustin Belletty (@DustnSellsDestn) January 11, 2024
That seems to be confirmed by this study.
NBA clubs have long permitted their elite players who are not injured to take it easy during the regular season in an effort to preserve their health and postseason form. As of right now, the IQVIA Injury Surveillance & Analytics study claims there is no evidence to support this notion.
In any case, the research looked at the connections between three crucial elements:
- frequency of game participation and injury
- schedule density and injury
- cumulative NBA participation and injury
The practice of "load management" is annoying and a rip-off for fans.
And according to a new report commissioned by the NBA, it's completely pointless.
READ: https://t.co/NjQ0FFfsW2 pic.twitter.com/hOiZgU9ey2
— OutKick (@Outkick) January 14, 2024
“Results from these analyses do not suggest that missing games for rest or load management — or having longer breaks between game participation — reduces future in-season injury risk,” the research concluded.
“In addition, injury rates were not found to be higher during or immediately following periods of a dense schedule.”
The variation in the number of games that prominent players missed was highlighted in the 57-page study. The average number of games missed by players classified as stars every season increased significantly between the 1990s and the present. It was 10.6 games in the 1990s. In the 2020s, it’s 23.9 games.
Back to backs in the NBA are turning into load management days for stars lol.
— CreamFriche (@Cream_Friche) January 12, 2024
Teams started to focus more on their performance and medical staff along the road, to the point where such departments had more influence over player engagement than management and coaching staff did.
Commissioner Adam Silver claimed that the increasingly common load management technique used by NBA players is taking advantage of fans.
Players who utilize this excuse to take a nap between back-to-back games include LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kawhi Leonard. This is disrespectful to the spectators who have paid good money for tickets.
📰 NBA report: No link between load management, less injury risk.#nba #nbax https://t.co/I8NyI8lMSi
— NBA News 24 (@nbaitalianews24) January 12, 2024
Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, has been hinting at this for months. When the league’s board of governors adopted a more stringent player participation policy in September, Silver informed reporters that “the science is inconclusive” about player rest. At the In-Season Tournament in December, Silver said to reporters, “We have no solid data that that is effective” in preventing injuries.
The truth is that it’s hard to estimate the number of players who may have sustained injuries if they hadn’t slept between games. It’s also reasonable to wonder what role the league ought to have in choosing a team’s starting lineup.
@NBA your rules about load management have ruined the games stars do play in. If you havent noticed all the blowouts is because at the first sign of adversity coaches are emptying their benches you are blind. The game is worse no one wants to watch noncompetitive games for an…
— MazrimPlays (@MazrimPlays) January 13, 2024
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