LeBron James Sounds Off on Early-Season Injuries in NBA, Points to Pace of Play, Shortened Preseason

Amid a slew of early-season injuries across the NBA, Philadelphia 76ers star LeBron James has a theory about what is causing some of the league's top stars to go down.

During this week's episode of the Mind the Game podcast (4:15 mark), James and co-host Steve Nash discussed the season-ending injury suffered by Oklahoma City Thunder star Jalen Williams and other ailing stars like Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (hamstring) and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (knee). The 41-year-old suggested that players are having trouble transitioning from the offseason to the high pace of regular-season play.

"We go back to the pace of the game right now, and I think that has a lot to do with it," James said. "There's no way that you can simulate the way we're playing in today's game to offseason training. You can do as much as you can, but to jump right into full throttle of how we're playing the game today, I think, is very challenging."

James also pointed to the shortened preseason as a likely factor in these early-season injuries, and he called out performance-based analytics for these recent trends.

"But also, too, I know we hated it as players when we're in it, but the shortening of the preseason could be it as well," he said. "There's really not many two-a-days anymore. The amount of performance teams that's telling guys to not play as much actually might be a little bit more detrimental to our players."

In his 24th NBA season, James is doing everything he can to stay healthy and has played in six out of Philadelphia's eight games. But at this point, it wouldn't surprise anyone if he or anyone else had to miss time this year.