Injuries are beginning to take a toll on NBA teams. There are four specifically whose seasons have been completely derailed because of it.
Through the first few weeks of the NBA's regular season, it's been determined that injuries are up 35 percent compared to last year. They've been a bit storyline over the first month of the season. The hope is that the trend will officially regress to the mean but at least for now, it's impossible to suggest that it's not a big story that should be talked about more. Perhaps most importantly because injuries have likley played a hand on a few teams and their slow starts.
To be quite honest, I'm sure there are many teams that will want to point at injuries as a big reason for their rough starts. However, at least through the first 10-12 games of the season, I believe there are four teams that can rightfully chalk up their disastrous starts to the year to injuries. Let's take a look at each of those teams and how injuries have completely derailed their first month of the regular season.
Toronto Raptors
The Toronto Raptors may not immediately come to mind as a team in the league that has been decimated by injuries but they have. The Raptors are currently the worst team in the NBA with a 2-10 record. However, their record has been slightly distorted because of injuries. RJ Barrett missed the first week of the season, and both Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes have missed a decent chunk of the season.
Quickley missed eight games earlier this season with a pelvic contusion and is now back on the sideline after suffering an elbow injury. He's expected to miss at least another week of action. As a key piece of this team's build, this is not an ideal start to the season. Barnes, has missed the team's last eight games, is expected to miss at least another week if not more as he continues to recover from an orbital fracture. The Raptors are better than their record but because of injuries, it's hard to see that in their performance through the first month of the season.
New Orleans Pelicans
There probably isn't a team in the NBA whose season has been altered more because of injuries than the New Orleans Pelicans. At 3-9, the team's season has been turned upside down after it was believed that they could emerge as a potential dark horse in the Western Conference with all their talent. Now, the team has to seriously be thinking about embracing the idea of a retooling of the roster at the NBA Trade Deadline.
Of note, Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Trey Murphy III, and Herbert Jones have all missed a good chunk of the season. Murphy has made his way back but Jones, Murray, and McCollum are still on the mend. Recently, two other big contributions have been added to the list of injury concerns. Both Zion Williamson and Jose Alvarado are expected to miss multiple weeks. The Pelicans can't catch a break right now and you have to wonder what exactly is going on in that training room.
Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers have made the headlines time and time again this season for all the right reasons. All offseason, this team made an impressive move after an impressive move. However, so far this season, the Sixers have done little right. In fact, this team is on a dangerous path right now. Philly is 2-9 and lacks any identity or direction at the moment. In fairness, injuries are one of the big reasons why.
Starting with Joel Embiid and Paul George. Their dynamic duo has only played together once this season. It resulted in a loss. Right now, it appears both are missing second games of back-to-backs and that may not change at all for the rest of the season. But in addition to Embiid and PG battling early-season injuries, Tyrese Maxey has also missed the last week with a hamstring injury and is expected to miss the next couple of games before he returns. If the Sixers can get healthy, they have the potential to be dangerous. Right now, they simply can't get healthy though.
Milwaukee Bucks
At 4-8, there isn't much that has gone right for the Milwaukee Bucks. The duo of Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to leave much to be desired and the absence of Khris Middleton can't be overlooked any longer. There are many that want to rip apart this team but I don't think we truly understand what the injuries to Middleton have done to this team. The argument could be made that the lack of a healthy Middleton has completely altered this team's championship window.
Having missed the entire first month of the season, the injury to Middleton has had a huge negative impact on the Bucks. And they know that. That's probably one of the reasons the team hasn't gone into full panic mode just yet. But still without a clear timeline on when Middleton will make his season debut, this has to be a major red flag for a team that was supposed to reemerge this season as a championship contender.