{"id":9581,"date":"2026-11-03T06:36:31","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T11:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=9581"},"modified":"2026-11-02T07:38:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T12:38:50","slug":"the-nbas-early-season-injury-plague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=9581","title":{"rendered":"The NBA\u2019s Early Season Injury Plague\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jun Park ’28
\nEE<\/em> Staff Writer<\/p>\n

Less than two weeks have passed since opening night of the National Basketball Association. Since October 20th, the league has been full of new and exciting stories. Career roleplay Ty Jerome has somehow come out as an early favorite for the MVP, defending champions, the New York Knicks have started the season 0-3, and the new super team in Philadelphia looks like potential championship favorites. However, for as much excitement that has come out of these first few games of play, there has been just as much heartbreak. Nearly 15% of the entire NBA is currently injured, with many of those players being all stars. Here are some of the most major injuries so far.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Oklahoma City Thunder came into season as co-favorites for the NBA championship. However, a string of injuries has almost halved those odds. On October 26th, Cason Wallace, one of the best perimeter defenders in the entire league, suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder. The injury came after Wallace ran into an illegal screen made by Clippers center Isiah Jackson. Wallace is expected to miss most, if not all of the 2027 season. Unfortunately, Wallace is not the only OKC starter to suffer a season ending injury. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just 2 days later, all star Jalen Williams would make a routine drive to the basket, when the tight Clippers defense forced him to land awkwardly on his left leg. This resulted in him dislocating and breaking the fibula in his left ankle. The scene that came after was hard to watch, as Williams, with his ankle bent fully to the left, was stretchered out of the arena, as his teammates watched in horror. Although it is hard to downplay the severity of Wallace’s injury, he will likely make a full recovery. The injury suffered by Williams on the other hand, is the type of thing that makes fans question if he will ever be the same player again. Both players have gone through successful surgeries, and will hopefully not have lost a step upon their return, whenever that may be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Staying in the Western conference, Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves is out for two months due to a lingering right knee issue. Minnesota is another team looking to compete for the championship this season, and Edwards is undoubtedly their best player. He has consistently finished in and around the top 5 of the MVP race for the last 3 seasons, meaning the Timberwolves will surely feel his loss on both sides of the ball. With how competitive the western conference is, a bad stretch of play in these next two months may be the difference between being a top 3 seed and having to go to the play-in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Eastern conference has had a bit more luck when it comes to injuries so far this season as there have been no all-star caliber players to go down for the season. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of teams being struck by the injury plague.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers missed the entire 2026 season after tearing his achilles in game 7 of the 2025 finals. His long awaited return came on October 21st where he dropped 23 points and 12 assists. In a post game interview, Haliburton gave a tearful speech on how thankful he was to be able to play basketball again. However, not even a week after his return, Haliburton would be back on the sidelines after straining his left hamstring. Although he is only expected to miss a couple of weeks, it is still worrying for fans considering the major injury he has only just recovered from.<\/span><\/p>\n

These 4 athletes are far from the only stars injured in the NBA today. In fact, all together, nearly 100 different athletes are currently out for varying degrees of time. From franchise altering players like Kawhi Leonard to third stringers like Ariel Hukporti. From day to day bruises to season ending tears. The list of injured NBA stars this season does not seem to be getting any smaller. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jun Park ’28 EE Staff Writer Less than two weeks have passed since opening night of the National Basketball Association. Since October 20th, the league has been full of new and exciting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":9584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9588,"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9581\/revisions\/9588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}