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This most recent Derrick Rose injury really got me thinking about just how often players are dropping like flies these days. There's Rose with multiple knee surgeries, Kemba Walker now with bad knees, Westbrook, Paul George, Durant, Kyrie Irving last year, and a ton of other guys. Tyreke had those problems his second year, Jrue has had them for a few years now. You can go down the line.
I'd be interested in hearing what people here think may be the causes for this, but first I have a few theories of my own.
The first thing I notice is that the majority of the players who wear down easily these days are guys who were "one and done". This makes sense to me because players drafted out of high school have always broken down much quicker than ones who played in college, and the majority of NBA players these days or at least the big names happen to be guys who only stayed in school one year at most.
The second thing I notice is that the majority of guys with chronic injuries are guys who play hard every single play, play through pain, and hit the floor hard. They're downhill drivers, which means their legs are pounding into the ground with tremendous force, then often exploding off of it and landing hard back onto it.
The third thing is in the case of Derrick Rose, Kemba Walker, and a lot of other tough players who are more skilled than big and not crazy long like other guys, is they all grew up playing streetball on concrete. Now I don't think it's the concrete itself that causes this but anybody who has played streetball in a basketball hotbed knows how hard you play and how competitive it is. You drive into the concrete very hard, jump very hard, land very hard. Everything is hard, explosive, fast, and intense. That's putting your legs through a ton before you even get to college let alone the NBA. All of these guys lost some of their explosiveness from college and especially high school. Dion Waiters is a great example of this, as he was in crazy shape with crazy athleticism in high school and some of college but last year he really started to lose some of that athleticism and burst and his body got bigger and more filled out. Tyreke is another guy, and Lance Stephenson.
Sure, you have your guys who get injured because they're too lazy to play the right way or put the work in to ensure they don't get injured (Melo, Paul George, John Wall, Kyrie Irving, to name a few) but I think those are situations that can be corrected if the player gets over himself and gets his head on straight.
Anyway, I'd love to hear everybody else's thoughts on this. It does seem to be becoming a serious problem.
I'd be interested in hearing what people here think may be the causes for this, but first I have a few theories of my own.
The first thing I notice is that the majority of the players who wear down easily these days are guys who were "one and done". This makes sense to me because players drafted out of high school have always broken down much quicker than ones who played in college, and the majority of NBA players these days or at least the big names happen to be guys who only stayed in school one year at most.
The second thing I notice is that the majority of guys with chronic injuries are guys who play hard every single play, play through pain, and hit the floor hard. They're downhill drivers, which means their legs are pounding into the ground with tremendous force, then often exploding off of it and landing hard back onto it.
The third thing is in the case of Derrick Rose, Kemba Walker, and a lot of other tough players who are more skilled than big and not crazy long like other guys, is they all grew up playing streetball on concrete. Now I don't think it's the concrete itself that causes this but anybody who has played streetball in a basketball hotbed knows how hard you play and how competitive it is. You drive into the concrete very hard, jump very hard, land very hard. Everything is hard, explosive, fast, and intense. That's putting your legs through a ton before you even get to college let alone the NBA. All of these guys lost some of their explosiveness from college and especially high school. Dion Waiters is a great example of this, as he was in crazy shape with crazy athleticism in high school and some of college but last year he really started to lose some of that athleticism and burst and his body got bigger and more filled out. Tyreke is another guy, and Lance Stephenson.
Sure, you have your guys who get injured because they're too lazy to play the right way or put the work in to ensure they don't get injured (Melo, Paul George, John Wall, Kyrie Irving, to name a few) but I think those are situations that can be corrected if the player gets over himself and gets his head on straight.
Anyway, I'd love to hear everybody else's thoughts on this. It does seem to be becoming a serious problem.
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