Are There Bad NBA Training Staffs?
The Detroit Pistons and Phoenix Suns, to name perhaps the two most famous ones, frequently get credit for having miracle workers on their training staffs. Detroit has had injury-prone players, notably Antonio McDyess and Chris Webber, contribute, as well as a core of veterans that stayed relatively injury free during six straight lengthy playoff runs.
The Phoenix staff helped rejuvenate an injured and out-of-shape Shaq when he arrived in the desert, kept Steve Nash healthy and helped Amare Stoudemire return from a devastating knee injury, not to mention the fact that former coach Mike D'Antoni was notorious for using a very short bench and not playing young guys, making it difficult to keep the older roster healthy all season.
But not every team has that kind of success with injuries, and Matt Yglesias wonders if it could have something to do with the training staff:
But are the Wizards cursed or do they have a sub-par medical/training staff? There seems to be very little attention paid to that kind of issue. But the conventional wisdom is that the Phoenix trainers are unusually good, so doesn’t it make sense that some would be unusually bad. Wizards players not only get hurt a lot (which happens to everyone) but seem to take a very long time to recover.
It's an interesting topic at least. You rarely hear about injury-plagued teams getting rid of members of their training staff. We report on the quality of coaches and executives, aren't trainers a vital part of the team success too?
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