Last Week in Applied Sports Science, 11/23-11/29

There is risk management. And there is guessing. Teams with injured players do one or the other, and it is easy to tell which tactic teams choose. Teams that manage risk are much more likely to hold players out of games. Teams that guess are more likely to let them play.

In the NBA, Indiana and Oklahoma City were rewarded for the teams’ patience with strong performances by returning players, David West and Russell Westbrook, respectively. The Chicago Bulls and the team’s fans seem frustrated that their patience has not been rewarded in the case of Derrick Rose. And the jury is out in Houston with Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones, and in New York with Carmelo Anthony.

Which teams guess? The Hawks keep sending out Al Horford even though he has not been right coming back from his should injury last season. The Nuggets had been doing something similar with Ty Lawson earlier this season. Both players are playing better now though. So these two teams took a chance, but it seems to have worked out.

The real test will come in the weeks ahead, as key players wear down and their injury risk increases. Players like DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, James Harden, John Wall, Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin all carry large burdens for their teams, teams that are winning and competing for playoff spots. How those players and their teams deal with the risk are going to shape the next phase of the current NBA season.

There is a UK article on soccer from The Secret Physio that (correctly) puts responsibility for injury prevention with the coach. Any single coach is unlikely to have the time or the analytical know how to do an MBA-level risk management workup however. It is the coach as chief decision-maker who is responsible. It is also the coach as chief collaborator who gathers the information to make informed choices. Or the coach doesn’t seek information and as chief non-collaborator, opts to make guesses.


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