but your fanpost makes me wonder what the per-team average is and whether we exceed it.

It’s a pretty safe bet ti guarantee that some players will miss time this year, it’s exceedingly rare to have a healthy team all season. That’s ok. That’s why KP has tried to have backups at every position, so that we’ll have coverage unless there’s a huge injury bug.

I wouldn’t put too much stock in the recent injury reports. It’s a little bit of coincidental timing (Roy and Frye, Raef) and a little bit of the norm for preseason (Oden etc). If you read other team reports, preseason injuries happen all over the league. It just feels magnified right now.

I wouldn’t worry too much right now. If injuries happen, they happen. It’s all about the journey anyway.

On a separate topic, any chance you can work on separating your thoughts into a few paragraphs? The single-paragraph stream-of-consciousness style is a little hard to read (though it’s a perfectly reasonable topic to bring up!).

Thanks!

Injuries are unpredictable. If we spend all our time worrying about them happening and then dwelling on them when they do happen, it will be a miserable season for everyone.

We just freak out now because we had a major injury last season, to the guy we all had such high hopes of watching play. It wasn’t just a disappointment, it was a MAJOR disappointment.

Only James Jones was injured for a prolonged time period. Joel, Brandon and LA just missed a few games. The likelihood that more injuries than that might happen during the next season are one reason Hollinger “downgraded” his outlook on the Blazers a bit but still placed them 8th (see fanshots).

Something minor like an ankle sprain happens all the time in pro basketball. And all teams have injury problems one time or another. I can remember that last year Nowitzki and Duncan had what was considered severe ankle sprains, and that cost them like two weeks to come back. Bryant injured his pinky (and – more gravely – lost his center). Houston lost Yao half-way through. Denver lost Nene. And they all made it to the playoffs in a highly competitive Western Conference despite that.

I don’t want any more injury bug karma.

is that we have a constant injury problem on such a young team, how are these guys going to be holding up 5 years form now when we are in the thick of our presumed dynasty?

Did this have any effect at all?

I think the first time I read about it was in a column by Bill Simmons.

It’s not like this story came out of the blue. Heading into the draft, there were concerns about Oden’s long-term physical health and the fact his legs were different sizes. After his predraft physical with Portland, rumors spread that the Blazers were concerned about his knees, followed by a round of stories that they weren’t concerned at all.

Greg’s Wikipedia article doesn’t mention it as far as I can see, neither does the discussion page for it. DraftExpress which is usually very thorough with any concerns about a future major player doesn’t have a word about it. Anybody has a primary source for this claim to prove or refute it?