NBA Report: No Correlation Between Load Management, Reduced Injury Risk

Load management has been a hot topic in the NBA in recent years, but the league seems to have concluded that it's not an effective method of keeping players healthy.

Per ESPN's Tim Bontemps, the NBA released an analytics report to teams and select media members this week that revealed there is "no correlation" between load management and the reduced risk of injury.

NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars had said in October that load management didn't have an effect on injury risk, and these findings appear to back up his declaration. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver echoed Dumars' sentiments during a press conference in December.

The 57-page report was produced by Dr. Christina Mack, epidemiologist and chief scientific officer at IQVIA Injury Surveillance & Analytics. Mack pointed out that the findings didn't completely dismiss the effectiveness of load management.

"We're not saying it's better or worse," Mack said.

The report used leaguewide data from the 2013-14 season through 2022-23 to study the relationships between injury and frequency of game participation, schedule density and cumulative NBA participation. The findings indicated that there were none.

"Results from these analyses do not suggest that missing games for rest or load management--or having longer breaks between game participation--reduces future in-season injury risk," the report said, in bold type, in its summary. "In addition, injury rates were not found to be higher during or immediately following periods of a dense schedule."

The report was commissioned this past summer amid the ongoing debate over star players missing games. Bontemps noted that star players have been found to miss 23.9 games per season in this decade, up from 10.6 games in the 1990s.

The league has already put new rules in place to try to curb the issue of load management, as players who appear in fewer than 65 games this season won't be eligible for MVP or All-NBA honors.