The 2024-25 NBA season has experienced a shocking upturn of injuries across the league. Many of the most beloved players missed large portions of time due to various injuries. Injuries are leaving teams without some of their stars and fun-to-watch players, which in part, is contributing to the decline in viewership. Over a third of teams in the NBA have had multiple players missing up to months of games simultaneously. These players include potential All-Stars such as Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis, Paolo Banchero, and even former league MVPs such as Joel Embiid. According to Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.com who keeps a database on injuries across the NBA, in the first three weeks of the season from October 22nd to November 11th, games lost due to players being injured increased by 35% from last season.
Recently, Commissioner Adam Silver has implemented some changes to try and combat this issue such as the player participation policy. The participation policy prevents teams from consistently resting star players during nationally televised games by removing eligibility for awards. This discourages teams from tanking (the practice of purposefully resting players in order to lose games, increasing the team’s possible draft stock) while better managing player workloads and ensuring rest is used more strategically.
Let’s zero in on one team in particular: the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks and their fans have had a rollercoaster of a season. Hot off a championship run, the Mavericks and Luka Doncic lost to the Celtics in a tough 5 game series ending their 2023-24 playoff run. However tragic for the fans this might be, the bar was set. The 2023-24 Dallas Mavericks were a championship level team, and surely a contender for the years to come. If they keep a healthy squad, that is.
Starting the season, Dallas had a rocky but strong start. With Doncic’s playing status being unpredictable, the team had to rely on other starting talent including Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson. Finishing the month of January, the team had a solid 26-22 record, just above 50%; however, the following months resulted in a multitude of injuries.
Recently traded to the Mavericks for Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis found himself on the sideline with a groin injury after just one game with the team. Within the next month, more than half of the Mavericks roster slowly trickled onto the team’s injury list. The final blow to Mavs fans was the ACL tear of Kyrie Irving, which marked a new low for the team, finishing with a poor record of just 39-43.
And it’s not just the Mavericks. Teams across the league such as the New Orleans Pelicans, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors, Memphis Grizzlies and more have all been facing similar issues. This plague that is sweeping across the NBA is a large problem, and a solution needs to be found or else we may see these numbers stay on the rise.
This article also appears in our April 2025 print edition.
