Mike Brown says injuries to Rose, Shumpert a product of the shortened season

Derrick Rose of the Bulls and Iman Shumpert of the Knicks both suffered season-ending knee injuries on the opening day of the playoffs Saturday, and Lakers head coach Mike Brown believes the compressed schedule that players faced in this lockout-shortened season may have had something to do with it.

Speaking before his team was set to open the playoffs on Sunday against the Nuggets at Staples Center, Brown was asked about the injuries, and whether or not they might have been a product of this season.

“I believe, but it’s nothing medical or anything like that,” he said. “I have nowhere near the knowledge where I probably even shouldn’t be making the statement. But yeah, I think so. A shortened season, a lot of games in a short amount of time, your body changes and stuff like that, you never know. I’ve just seen a lot of injuries this whole year, and I think it probably has to do with playing a lot of games in a short amount of time.”

It’s certainly an interesting topic for discussion. If players truly have been breaking down more due to the wear and tear placed on their bodies by the amount of games they’ve played — without the necessary recovery time — then the argument can be made that the league put its own product at risk by forcing so many games into such a short period of time.

In the case of Rose’s knee injury, that one might be easier to blame on his body having to overcompensate for the ankle injury he’s battled all season. Anytime you have a foot or leg injury, the body is going to adjust to try not to aggravate it further, and in doing so will put an undue amount of stress on the other muscles, ligaments, or joints.

It wasn’t the shoes that caused Rose’s injury, and it wasn’t the fact that he was on the floor with his team up by double digits with just over a minute remaining, either. Brown absolved Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau of any wrongdoing in keeping his star out there to close the game out.

“You’re trying to win and there was a minute and a half I think, a minute and 10 seconds left up 12, anything can happen in a short amount of time,” Brown said. “I’ve been around a few incidents where the tide has changed in less than 10 seconds, so there is a paranoia that coaches I think have. I thought what (Thibodeau) did was the right thing.”