NBA injuries: the numbers are concerning

The sense that more NBA players are sidelined isn’t just an impression. A look at recent seasons’ injury reports shows how frequently injuries have become a talking point, but Brian Sutterer, a physician known for analyzing basketball injuries, has put more precise numbers to the issue.

Through a study covering the 2005/06 through 2025/26 seasons, Sutterer examined how much the situation has changed over twenty years. The findings paint a clear picture: NBA players are getting injured much more frequently than in the past, even though individual absences tend to be shorter.

That finding partly challenges the idea that the main problem is increasingly lengthy injuries that are harder to recover from.

NBA players are missing twice as many games through injury

In 2005/06, absences related to muscle, bone and joint problems accounted for 10.8% of games. In the most recent season analyzed, 2025/26, that figure reached 21.2%.

Essentially, NBA players now miss nearly twice as many games through injury as they did twenty years ago. The increase affects not only the league’s stars, often the focus of discussions about missed games, but also regular rotation players.

Among players averaging at least 20 minutes, games missed per season have risen from approximately 7.5 to 15.4.

But injury frequency reveals perhaps the most interesting finding in the entire analysis.

In 2005/06, a rotation player averaged 0.9 separate injury-related absences per season. That figure has now reached 3.2. The more than threefold increase explains a substantial share of the games missed.

The paradox is that, over the same period, the average length of each absence has decreased, from 8 games to 4.4.

That means players aren’t necessarily dealing with longer-lasting injuries, but they are being sidelined much more frequently. Many of the additional absences involve short-term problems that cost players a few games before they return.

Serious injuries are also increasing

It would be wrong, however, to assume the trend involves only minor issues or precautionary absences.

According to Sutterer, injuries resulting in at least 20 missed games have also become more frequent. Comparing 2005-2012 with 2019-2026, the rate rose from approximately 1.7 to 2.8 incidents per 1,000 player-game appearances, an increase of nearly 70%.

And unlike less severe injuries, serious ones still require recovery periods broadly similar to those in the past. For absences exceeding ten games, the average remains around 22 games.

That distinction helps explain what is happening across the league: shorter-term injuries account for much of the increase, but more serious injuries are also becoming more frequent, without a significant change in their average duration.

The analysis also examines ACL and Achilles tendon tears, two of basketball’s most feared injuries.

Here, the increase is smaller, with the combined average rising from 4.6 to 6.3 incidents per season between the two periods analyzed, including the playoffs and offseason. Sutterer himself cautions against reading too much into those numbers: annual cases remain too few to establish a clear trend with certainty.

Why are NBA players getting injured so often?

It’s a question fans, coaches and others around the game are probably asking, particularly in a league that has invested heavily in conditioning and prevention in recent years.

Yet despite advances in sports medicine, absences continue to rise.

The demanding schedule, the speed of the modern game, constant changes of direction and workloads could all contribute. At the same time, medical staffs now pay closer attention to less serious problems, often choosing to sideline a player before a minor issue becomes something more significant.

Some of the increase in absences could therefore reflect more cautious injury management, as well as possible differences in how injuries are recorded.

Sutterer’s study, however, cannot determine with certainty how much each factor contributes.

What emerges most clearly is a change in how injuries affect NBA seasons. Players are sidelined more often and return sooner on average, but still end up missing far more games than in the past.

As the debate over scheduling, load management and prevention continues, the numbers confirm that the problem is real. Figuring out how to reduce it remains one of the NBA’s biggest challenges.