Still, the process of looking into Thibodeau’s record revealed a broader, perhaps more unsettling trend: injuries have been rising across the NBA for more than a decade, regardless of coaching style, playing time or load management. CJ McCollum, NBPA president and guard for the injury-depleted Pelicans, sees it firsthand. He talked to the Guardian last week in Los Angeles about the somewhat alarming trend and whether he had any ideas as to what could be causing it. “I think guys are playing a lot more basketball before they get to the NBA: grassroots, high school, college,” he said. “Just a lot of basketball being played. So at 22, 24, their bodies have been through a little more than [players] in previous years.”