Early season injuries

Injuries have provided a huge bummer to the early part of this season. One reason that we were all so excited to watch this NBA season was the lack of injuries coming into it, all of the stars were healthy and ready to go. Since that point, we have seen a lot of tough injuries. So let’s talk through some of them and how their teams will be without them.

Jalen Williams

The most significant of all these injuries is Jalen Williams, who suffered a gruesome dislocated left ankle and fractured left fibula that will likely cost him the rest of the season. On top of this, the Thunder also lost Cason Wallace for most if not all of the season with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. They are both devastating injuries that surely remove the Thunder as the favorite to win the title. Williams is the more significant one, losing Wallace hurts but OKC can replace him with some in house players, they cannot do that with J-Dub. The loss of Lu Dort left a hole on the wing for Oklahoma City, one that Williams was going to fill. He is the only wing with size and length on the OKC roster who could guard multiple positions. They could make a trade to replace him, Herb Jones is a name that could make sense but his extension makes that unlikely. Williams is also OKC’s 2nd best offensive player, they have guys who can fill that role, Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain are the most likely, but no one with the size and strength that Williams has. This is such a devastating injury and one that has the league questioning if OKC can win the championship this year.

Anthony Edwards

Edwards is the best player to get injured early in the season. He will miss around 2 months due to arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. It is a massive blow to Minnesota who had an awesome first week of the season, going 3-0 and looking like a legit title threat. This injury will have Edwards back around Christmas so the Wolves will be okay long term but the short term is all about staying inside the top 6 of the Western Conference. I am confident that Minnesota will be able to do that, although Wednesday’s loss to Golden State was a bad start. LaMelo Ball is going to need to be the catalyst for this. He has shown the ability to take a roster that is lacking in talent and make them a really good offense. This Wolves roster has the talent around Ball to be a top 10 offense while Edwards is out. Ball is a guy who has struggled with injuries throughout his career himself so Minnesota will need him to stay on the court in these games. They also need better play from Rudy Gobert, who has struggled to open the season. Minnesota has enough pieces to stay afloat while Edwards is out but it will still be a challenge. 

Kawhi Leonard

There are 2 reasons to not believe Toronto is a legit title threat this year. Center (Jakob Poeltl hasn’t played well to start the year) and Kawhi Leonard’s body. For Leonard to have swelling in his left knee this early is not good. Kawhi stayed healthy last year, playing in 65 games and making All-NBA 2nd team. Kawhi missing 3 to 4 weeks won’t kill Toronto's season in any way and hopefully he is back before Thanksgiving. However, it is concerning to have any swelling hold him out for an extended period of time. This is still a good team whose defense and Scottie Barnes carry them while Leonard is out so I am not worried about the Raptors falling drastically in the Eastern Conference standings. They just beat the Magic by 30 without Leonard on Wednesday night. That is good evidence that Toronto should be able to survive without him. The Raptors gave up a lot to acquire Leonard from the Clippers and it made sense as to why they did that, Kawhi is really good and a real ceiling raiser for them. In order for Leonard to raise the Raptors ceiling he needs to be on the floor and this is not a great start.

Tyrese Haliburton

Haliburton is out at least 2 weeks with a left hamstring strain. After missing all of last season with a right Achilles tear, seeing Hali injure his left leg isn’t too surprising but still concerning. I do think we need to worry about Indiana. Tanking certainly played a reason into last season's 19 wins but you don’t win 19 games as a good team. Indiana was dreadful without Haliburton last season, we have no evidence this team can survive without him this year. In fact, it hadn’t been a good start to the season for the Pacers with Haliburton. Getting blown out in the home opener by the Dallas Mavericks is worrying, even if Dallas might be a good team because of how good Cooper Flagg is. Starting center Ivica Zubac is also out for Indiana. What center behind him can play real NBA minutes? Jay Huff is good in theory but he has been pretty bad in his Pacers tenure. Since the start of last season neither Andrew Nembhard nor Aaron Nesmith have played particularly well and TJ McConnell has yet to play this season after looking washed last year. The good news for the Pacers is Haliburton is going to be back, how soon is up in the air but the hope should be that he is back within the next month. Outside of that, there are a lot of questions about this roster that linger both short term and long term.