"Shooting has warped the floor. Active, frantic defending is now required across all but a narrow band of space straddling the half-court line. To make matters worse, the game is once again getting faster: The league's average pace, a measure of possessions per 48 minutes, is presently at its highest level since 1989; also, ESPN says that players are covering more distance and at higher speeds than at any other time in the tracking era, which goes back to 2013."
"It cannot be denied that soft tissue injuries are rampant, and it is only mid-November. Eight teams played games Thursday night, and every one of them came in mangled by injuries to key players. In Orlando, the Clippers brought a team featuring James Harden but missing Kawhi Leonard to face, and to lose to, a Magic squad waiting for the return of Paolo Banchero."
Faster pace, increased perimeter shooting, and narrower defensive spacing have altered game movement and elevated physical demands on players' muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Players are covering more distance and moving at higher speeds than earlier tracking-era benchmarks, while the league enforces a dense schedule and penalizes certain rest decisions. Soft-tissue injuries have surged early in the season, sidelining key contributors across multiple teams. Kawhi Leonard has been out since Nov. 3 with foot and ankle troubles and the Clippers' record has fallen markedly without him. Paolo Banchero missed multiple games with a groin issue. Teams like the Grizzlies and Kings also entered contests missing star players due to injuries.
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