bucks injury report

bucks injury report

The Importance of the Bucks Injury Report

1. Introduction

Injuries in sports are seen as setbacks. They are typically viewed as negative, and to an extent, they are. Injuries tamper with the performance of an individual and a team. The Milwaukee Bucks’ injury report that was explored throughout the course of the 2018-2019 season is a clear depiction that injuries are not always so simple. This injury report has provided insightful information as to how some injuries and their timetables can ultimately be positive. This essay will examine the Bucks’ injury report by focusing on a few of the more serious injuries that occurred throughout the season. This essay will provide insight as to whether or not each injury had a positive or negative impact on the player and team, and will discuss the severity and the nature of the specific injury. The Bucks’ high point winning the NBA championship is summed up as ‘pretty clean’, meaning no major injuries occurred with the exception of Malcolm Brogdon. Brogdon suffered a minor plantar fascia tear in his right foot during game 5 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals, and then did not return to play until the first game of the NBA finals. Since this injury occurred during the later end of the postseason and considering the Bucks were down to their final games leading into the last series, Brogdon’s injury had positive takeaways. Plantar fascia is the area of tissue that runs across the bottom of your foot, and conditions involving it can be very serious and painful and lead to much longer timetables. If Brogdon were to fully tear his plantar fascia, it could have resulted in over 6 months of recovery. By missing only 7 games, it was clear that he was playing in some discomfort, but the Bucks’ well-awaited first-year guard was able to show that he has the potential to increase his play style come next season with his remarkable playoff performance.

2. Key Players’ Injuries

The Bucks’ big run last season was in a large part due to their stellar play while being an incredibly healthy team. This will be very hard to replicate due to the probability of injuries throughout an 82-game season. Every player sustains some form of injury throughout a season, so the impact of injuries to key players is a very important thing to analyze. For the most part, when a team loses an important player to an injury, the team’s level of play and success decline. Past NBA champions show little to no decrease in winning percentage with injuries to key players. The Lakers in 2000-2002 won back-to-back-to-back titles with Shaq only playing 60, 67, and 73 games in the regular season, and Kobe and Derek Fisher facing injuries in some of those seasons. The 2003-2005 Detroit Pistons won a championship with no player from their starting lineup playing more than 70 games. There are exceptions like the Houston Rockets and Tracy McGrady in the earlier part of the last decade having no success in the playoffs, but for the most part, the impact of injuries to key players shows a decrease in winning percentage and fewer chances at playoff success.

3. Impact on Team Performance

Considering the amount of significance people give to an NBA team’s performance and their corresponding health status, it is a necessity that the Bucks injury reports have a huge toll on fanatics and the Bucks organization. If a team is healthy, the expectation is that they will do well, thus improving the fans’ interest level and ticket sales, whereas if a team is doing poorly, there is a lower status of interest and fans are less likely to buy tickets for games. Graphs 1 and 2 illustrate these correlations within the NBA and the Milwaukee Bucks. With the Bucks organization, ticket sales and interest increase when the team is winning, conversely peaking when they beat the odds and defeated the Golden State Warriors at the end of the 2015-2016 season. A decline in popularity was especially evident at the end of the 2012-2013 season where the Bucks lost 12 of their last 16 games resulting in the firing of head coach Jim Boylan. Boylan’s first stint as the head coach also ended short because of Larry Krystkowiak’s termination due to underperformance. 10-day contract player signings have been the result of recent injuries during the last 2 seasons indicating a drop in a player’s talent level and contrasting the increase of interest displayed from Graph 1. The NBA Graph displays the relationships of games lost by starters to final team record, as one would predict, the R = 0.723 shows a relatively strong inverse correlation meaning a higher amount of games lost due to starter injuries will result in a poor team record. With the Bucks wanting to make a playoff push in the upcoming years, it is important that they are injury-free and Field R = 0.066 indicates that there is minimal chance of playoffs with low R injured with a small sample size.

4. Medical Staff’s Role

Once the injury report is complete and the trader has an extensive list of injuries, the medical staff’s role is to provide the coach with the most current and reliable information available through a sequence of means. The coach and staff need to know the injury and its projected length, treatment options, whether or not the injury can worsen with activity and possible long-term effects. This information can be given directly to the medical staff, through written reports or in some cases a team meeting may be necessary. To ensure that accuracy is maximized and time is not wasted, some medical staff members have even used injury coding systems to classify injuries and streamline communication. Time away from player and practice sessions often makes communication difficult, so it is essential that information gathering is ongoing and that communication with the coach is maintained. Providing injury information effectively to the coach is the area where sports medicine personnel can have the greatest impact on sports injury outcomes. While at times there can be enormous external pressure from key stakeholders, the primary role of the medical staff is to facilitate optimal injury outcomes, returning the athlete to full health and minimizing the risk of reinjury. An accurate injury diagnosis and regular treatment updates greatly assist coaching staff in making more informed decisions about player availability and whether or not a return to play would be a premature decision. This can be achieved through a recovery timeline outlining the various stages of treatment and expected dates of progression to activity and return to training. Regular player assessment by both the medical and coaching staff can then compare the current player status with the demands of their position in training and competition, helping to decide whether a player return is viable or if it should be delayed. At times there may be underlying player pressure to return earlier than recommended in order to reclaim their position or display team commitment. In these situations it may be necessary for the medical staff to divulge injury information to coaching staff and demonstrate the potential risks of a premature return to play in terms of reinjury and prolonged absence.

5. Conclusion

Now with the Pelicans case, they said they will try to accommodate Jarrett Jack next season, compared to my time. 15 years ago, this would be a different decision. Back in the years, the Pelicans would just waive the player due to injury and not make a recovery progress with the intention to take the salary cap relief. This decision was seen in the late Larry Brown era with the Charlotte Bobcats, which finally the Cats used the amnesty clause for Eddie Robinson and also with no intention of re-signing the lingering problem (LP) player. This decision can be a reference for the Bucks’ players, especially with the LP and RI case.

Now we go to Jarrett Jack who is reported to still be on recovery progress with the first ACL injury. We got from the Warriors team that said they will give Jarrett more time until fully recovered and at least they will try to bring back Jarrett to the next season since the performance before the injury was very good and also gave a positive impact for the young Pelicans team. This is an interesting story that can give a big impact for the player itself and the team’s decision to play with the injury case.

At least with the Bucks injury report, we can hope there will be some changes made by the NBA, especially to eliminate player injuries due to the hectic schedule and also the hard push from the NBA team.

Next, we have Jay Williams who is reported to be making good recovery development with the leg injury that he got. At this time, the Bulls team said that they are preparing to send Jay to the NBDL, which they consider Jay will agree to.

From the data, we can see that Scott Williams has a recurring injury (RI) and Horace Grant with a lingering problem (LP). This information will affect their preparation for the next season. Although both of them have not yet decided about the retirement plan, but with this condition, it is possible they will not play in the next season and finally retire from NBA. This will also affect their decision to play in international events for the national team.

The importance of injury report is very vital for us making a decision, especially for those who are involved in gambling on NBA. By referring to the injury report data, we can predict what the final result will be. Even if the player said he is okay to play, but if we look at the injury report that states they are still injured, it will affect the performance and the final score for the teams.

I will keep posted the injury report that is issued on Milwaukee Bucks’ players and will just update it only if any new injury is reported. This Bucks injury report will let us know what happened with the players, especially those who suffered injury in the last season, and also any recovery progress for this season’s players’ injury.