I know basketball season isn’t quite wrapped up, but the Warriors have had the most injury plagued season I’ve ever seen them go through in my lifetime. Nearly all NBA teams have close to 12 guys suiting up for every game, and the Warriors have had 9 or fewer players suit up for 31 of their 63 games thus far. It looks like this trend will continue to for the remainder of the season as even the D-Leagues they’ve called up are somehow getting hurt too. Being a die hard fan of everything that is Oakland sports, it’s tough to watch my team go through these kinds of problems. Anyone that follows the A’s would know that they’ve had their fair share of injuries over the past few seasons, and it got me thinking what team had the worst injury riddled season of all time in Oaktown!?! It wasn’t hard to pick a team to match up with the Warriors this year. The Oakland A’s had a ton of injuries last year (17 times they used the DL), but not quite as many as the 2008 squad (25 times they used the DL, and a team record). So my question is, who had the worst injury plagued season the 2009-10 Warriors or the 2008 Athletics?
2009-2010 Warriors
This Warriors season has had lots of lots in just one box season. It’s worse because it’s been mostly the players we thought would be starting. I remember watching a post game interview with Stan Van Gundy, and he was saying that having 8 guys isn’t a huge deal, but which 8 you have is the most important. Truer words have never been spoken. Not that I was thinking that the Warriors were going to have a great season, but I figured we would be better than this! It was announced that Andris Biendrins will getting season ending surgery. He had a terrible year that will come to an end before most knew it even started. They have a pretty long list of guys that are out for the season including three guys that might have been starters such as; Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike, Brandon Wright, and the guys they traded for are even out for the season like Raja Bell and Vlad Radmanovic. Even the guys who were there as expiring contracts have gotten into some games like Deavan George. It’s amazing how inconsistent their lineup has been. Five games ago the Warriors had three healthy centers and no backup point guards, On Monday they had four eligible guards and only one center. A summary of this season was in a game against the Bucks in mid-January. They didn’t even have enough players to finish a game! The refs didn’t even know what to do when the healthy body, Stephen Curry, received his sixth foul. They had to confer and ended up giving the W’s a Technical foul, and let Curry keep playing so they had the five guys to finish the game.
2008 Athletics
The 2008 A’s were a perplexing team. At the time I felt that they were good enough to make a run at a division title around the All-Star break being 3-5 games out of first, but those hopes were dashed around the trade deadline when we sent our proven players like Blanton and Harden off in trades. We essentially were waving the white flag for the season right there. Maybe I wasn’t looking at the overall picture enough at the time, because they had a ton of guys getting hurt, and maybe management felt that they didn’t have as good a chance as I thought they did at making the playoffs. Especially since the Angels traded for Texiera as the premier trade deadline splash. Anyways, they used the DL an amazing 25 times with those players missing a total of 877 games. Sure you have the often injured Eric Chavez type guys on there, but that’s beside the point.They obliterated every other team in the league in that category by 10. They didn’t even recovery that well in 2009 using the DL 17 times, and was second in the league in that category. Maybe it’s not The Curse of the Wash after all that is bringing them down, maybe it’s just the injuries!
All in all, Oakland fans have been getting used to hearing, so and so is having surgery. So and so, is day to day. So and so got in a moped accident. Ok, that last one was a cheap shot, but you get the point. Maybe these past couple of years will make them upgrade their training staffs. Maybe karma will kick in and give them a clean bill of health for the next three years! My pick for the most injured team, goes to the 2009-10 Warriors, they’ve been more banged up than Charlie Sheen the last couple months!
March 11th, 2010 at 2:10 am
[…] Which Was the Most Injured Team in Oakland? « Doin Work […]
March 11th, 2010 at 5:50 am
chappy 81
When there’s no real depth on your roster that’s when a team is found out . And the case can be made for the Warriors and the A’s .
Alan Parkins
March 11th, 2010 at 6:37 am
I remember this season watching your Warriors playing my Heat, and all of the Warriors on the court were undrafted!…Tough times in the Bay Area, but hopefully Steph Curry can continue to get better and help turn things around…
March 11th, 2010 at 10:44 am
AL,
I think it matters which guys get hurt. If it’s your bench that’s piling up the injuries, then it’s a lot better than having your startets getting hurt. It doesn’t matter how deep you are when your best players aren’t out there you will be bad no matter what…
Anthony,
I have had a huge mancrush on Curry since he was a Davidson! His game is so well rounded for a rookie! There’s a mild hope that he can turn it around. If not, I’m sure he’ll be amazing for the next team he plays for…
March 11th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
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March 11th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
chappy
If your bench has no depth then it doesn’t matter who gets injured. What’d happen to the Lakers if Bryant were to now go down with a prolonged injury ?
C’mon now you know they wouldn’t survive without him.
That bench of theirs is their Achilles’ heel. And it’s nowhere near as good as some believe. The loss of Ariza has compounded it all. Because Artest has yet to pick up the slack.
Alan Parkins
March 16th, 2010 at 8:01 am
[…] Which Oakland Team Had the Most Injuries? « Doin Work […]
August 25th, 2010 at 11:37 am
[…] O-line. Last year we suffered lots of injuries to the front line in an attempt to beat out the A’s and Warriors as the most injured franchise of the bay. They used 12 different starting lineups for the O-linemen in 16 games. That doesn’t […]