Brooklyn Nets: Kyrie Irving should be on a strict load management program

The Brooklyn Nets should place Kyrie Irving on a strict management program next season because of the recurring injuries throughout his career

There is a significant amount of discussion around the league about whether Kyrie Irving can keep the Brooklyn Nets competitive while Kevin Durant is out for most of next season. In fact, a television show on Fox Sports 1 called First Things First posed that question as a topic for their show earlier this week.

However, one can argue that remaining competitive next season shouldn’t be their top priority as Kyrie has a difficult time staying on the court. He has been forced to miss 132 out of a possible 640 regular season games in eight seasons due to various ailments.

At the beginning of his career, Kyrie Irving was sustaining injuries to all parts of his body. In fact, according to NBA.com, Kyrie was forced to leave a Cleveland Cavaliers road game against the Toronto Raptors as he sustained a sprained left shoulder in the third quarter:

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"Irving got hurt in a loss at Toronto on Sunday night, when he collided with Raptors rookie forward Jonas Valanciunas while trying to drive the baseline in the third quarter. Irving slammed his shoulder into the 257-pound Valanciunas and was knocked out of bounds."

The sprained left shoulder caused him to miss the eight straight games in March of 2013. During the subsequent season, Kyrie had to leave in the first quarter of a road game against the Los Angeles Clippers with a strained left biceps.

According to Sports Illustrated, the injury happened when Kyrie attempted to knock the ball out of Blake Griffin‘s hands as he was performing a putback:

"Irving swiped upwards at the ball to prevent Blake Griffin from attempting a putback shot in the paint, knocking the ball out of bounds. Immediately after the play, Irving began favoring his left arm and he quickly checked out of the game to receive medical attention."

Kyrie’s biceps injury sidelined him for eight straight games over two weeks from mid to late March of 2014. Unfortunately, his injuries became more centralized after he developed tendonitis in his left knee in the 2015 Eastern Conference playoffs.

Tendonitis was the culprit behind Kyrie Irving missing Games 2-3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Atlanta Hawks. The left knee continued to be an issue until he fractured his knee cap during overtime in the first game of the NBA Finals.

Irving would miss the rest of the Finals and the first 24 games of next season as he recovered from the injury. He made his return on December 20th of that year and would be fine for about the next 14 months.

However, the left knee issue resurfaced on March 16th, 2016, as he sat out the fourth quarter of a game against the Utah Jazz with tightness in his knee. He would miss the next game with the Clippers because the knee was still bothering him.

Less than a month later, he had to leave a game against Atlanta in the third quarter because of left knee soreness. During the postgame scrum, he admitted that the past two days were very rough for him because of the knee:

"Irving told reporters the team’s previous off-day had been “a terrible day for me and my knee.”"

The left knee problems continued in his first season with the Boston Celtics as he missed the final 22 regular season games and the playoffs because he underwent surgery to remove a tension wire in his left knee.

The tension wire was placed in the knee during the surgery to repair the fractured kneecap, and it ultimately ended up being the source of his pain. Although the left knee problems appear to be gone, for now, he still missed 15 regular season games this year with several injuries such as a strained right knee and a sore left hip.

Therefore, the Brooklyn Nets should put him on a rigorous load management program ( be on pace to play 50-60 games until KD returns ) where he doesn’t play back to backs and is shut down for an indefinite period when he feels pain. This plan would lower the risk of injury, giving the team a chance to have Kyrie as healthy as possible for when Kevin Durant returns to the court.

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If they don’t have a plan in place, history indicates that Kyrie Irving will suffer an injury causing the team’s championship aspirations to be delayed or completely derailed.

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