Long Term Logic, Short Term Chaos
In the long run, it makes perfect sense. Players with huge upsides have injuries. For an NBA team with enough patience, those high upsides can mean the difference of annually picking early in the draft, or competing in the NBA Playoffs.
Busting Brackets
In the short term, it’s chaos. A head coach must read his available player roster and try to form the best lineup from the “who’s healthy” column. While some use this citation against the Philadelphia 76ers as the reason they lost so many games, the reality is that the 2016-2017 was no better health wise.
Why No IR List NBA?
In fact, the team made deliberate efforts to reinforce the backcourt in free agency. At season’s end, it was T.J. McConnell and Nik Stauskas who boasted the most games played. FA Gerald Henderson played eight fewer than Stauskas. FA Sergio Rodriguez played 13 games fewer than McConnell.
If the NBA wants to fix the NBA Draft, a food step would be to add a third round. A second way to improve the draft is to give teams an injured reserve option. that would allow teams to draft a prospect who needs a year to rehab, without penalizing the team for doing so. In order for the NBA to improve the competition from bad teams, the rules must change to give them more opportunities to level the playing field.