NBA 2025 injury surge: Warriors coach Steve Kerr calls for shorter season and slower pace

The NBA is less than a month into the 2025–26 season, yet injuries to marquee players are already shaping early storylines and raising alarms across front offices.

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers confirmed that former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo will miss at least two weeks with a groin strain. Rising French star Victor Wembanyama is also expected to sit out several weeks after suffering a left calf strain. They join a growing list of players—including Anthony Davis, Ty Jerome, Dylan Harper, Ja Morant, and Jrue Holiday—currently sidelined with soft-tissue injuries.

The spike in such injuries has become a major concern for Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who attributes part of the problem to the league’s dramatic uptick in pace of play.

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“I’m very concerned. The pace difference is dramatic. This team tonight (Orlando Magic) has really upped their pace compared to last year. I think across the league, everybody understands now that it’s just easier to score if you can beat the opponent down the floor, get out in transition,” Kerr said. “But when everybody’s doing that, the games are much higher paced, faster paced, and then everyone has to cover out to 25 feet because everybody can shoot threes.”

Steve Kerr said he’s “concerned” about the increase in soft tissue injuries across the NBA. His medical staff believes the increased pace paired with the schedule has led to it.

“They believe the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage is factoring into these injuries.” pic.twitter.com/VABfBFJMcK

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) November 18, 2025

Kerr added that the league now has clear data showing the increased physical demands on players. “Players are running faster and further than ever before, and so we are trying to do the best we can to protect them, but we basically have a game every other night, and it’s not an easy thing to do.”

According to ESPN, teams are playing at the fastest collective pace the league has seen since the 1988–89 season. Kerr, 60, has long pushed for a shortened regular-season schedule—suggesting a reduction from 82 to around 72 games—to provide athletes with more rest and practice time.

“We literally haven’t had a single practice on this road trip. Not one,” he said. “We have been gone a week or longer. Eight days, not one practice. It’s just game, game, game. So not only is there no recovery time, there’s no practice time. What was different was back in the day, you did have four games in five nights, which was not great, but then you would have four days between games. You would take a day off and have a couple of good practices.”

Golden State’s grueling six-game road trip underscores his point: after facing the Miami Heat, the Warriors will have played a league-high 17 games in 29 days across 12 cities. The demanding schedule has coincided with an uneven start to their season, as the team sits eighth in the Western Conference at 9–7.

Still, Kerr acknowledges that major scheduling changes remain unlikely due to financial hurdles.

“The tricky part is all the constituents would have to agree to take less revenue. In 2025 in America, good luck in any industry. Imagine some big company saying, ‘You know what, we are not concerned about our stock price. We are actually concerned with employing people and giving people a stable job and making our product better.’ That’s not happening. You know that,” Kerr concluded.

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