Soft-tissue leg injuries have been one of the key developments of the 2026 NBA playoffs, as they were last year, and the numbers behind the trend are striking. Documented calf injuries across the entire league stood at 18 in 2010-11. Last season, that figure reached 60 and 86 this season.

Jalen Williams has missed six Oklahoma City Thunder playoff games with a hamstring strain. Franz Wagner, OG Anunoby, Aaron Gordon, Peyton Watson, and Jayson Tatum have all missed time with calf or hamstring issues. Donte DiVincenzo ruptured his Achilles. Luka Doncic missed the Los Angeles Lakers' entire playoff run with a Grade 2 hamstring tear. Anthony Edwards has been limited since returning from a knee injury.

Researchers and sports scientists point to a fundamental shift in how basketball is played. Ron Adams, a longtime NBA assistant coach, framed the issue directly.

"Basketball used to be a two-footed sport," said Adams. "If you ever watched a John Wooden practice, it was always the same: get to the paint and play off of two feet. Nowadays, the game is a one-footed sport. Most players are making every move off of one foot."

The stepback three and the Euro-step, now central to modern NBA offense, place extreme demand on the calf and hamstring. Richard Lieber, chief scientific officer at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and author of the standard textbook on skeletal muscle, describes the core mechanism: muscle damage occurs when a muscle is both activated and stretched simultaneously. The stepback does exactly that, forcing rapid eccentric loading on a single leg.

The star players most associated with one-footed creation have paid a physical cost. Jayson Tatum attempted 11 stepback threes in his 2017-18 rookie season. In 2024-25, he attempted 251, a 23-fold rise. Only five players have surpassed 1,000 career stepback threes since tracking began in 2013-14: James Harden, Doncic, Stephen Curry, Tatum, and Damian Lillard. Lillard and Tatum have each suffered Achilles tears. Doncic has sustained three calf strains. Curry recorded the first muscle strain of his 17-year career in last year's playoffs.

The recurring-injury numbers are particularly concerning. This season, 13 players sustained multiple calf injuries. Six players suffered three or more calf strains in a single season: Coby White, Rui Hachimura, Isaiah Hartenstein, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Evan Mobley, and Ty Jerome. From 2010 through 2024, that had happened a total of five times across 14 seasons combined. Calf injuries now account for nearly one in four lower-leg injuries league-wide, up from fewer than one in ten a decade ago. Last season, six players tore their Achilles, the highest single-season total on record.

The league's schedule compounds the strain. An 82-game regular season feeds into a two-month playoff run, with no meaningful structural change to reduce physical wear. The NBA introduced an in-season tournament in 2023 and added a 65-game eligibility threshold for award consideration, moves that increase competitive pressure rather than reduce it.