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Is age an illusion in the NBA?
Posted by: Kyle11Kirkham on September 1st, 2010
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.One great thing about replacing Boozer and Korver this offseason was that we got alot younger with jefferson and hayward. However replacing Wes with Bell is a different scenario.
Bell brings alot to Utah. He is a veteran that brings leadership. He can nail three’s with ease. And he is known mostly for his “nasty” D (hows the neck kobe?). However the one thing that concerns many Jazz fans is his age. And that concern comes with good reason, after all, once you hit 30 the NBA starts to view you as old.
Anyways, a little while ago I read something about how Raja actually has much less minutes on his legs then you would think, especially when compared to a player like Kobe. I couldn’t remember exactly what he did or said so I did a little of my own research.
Here is what I found:
Age
Kobe- Turned 32 this Aug.
Raja- Turns 34 this Sep.
Years Pro
Kobe- 14
Raja- 10
Average MPG
Kobe- 36.6
Raja- 28
Minutes Per Season
Kobe- 2,670
Raja-1,692
Total Minutes Played (All-Star not included)
Kobe- 37,384
Raja- 16,923
Summary: So after looking at all that we can conclude with one main point. We all know (as much as we hate to admit) Kobe is still playing at a level above pretty much everyone in the NBA. So what’s my point? Kobe has played 37k minutes in his career while Raja has only player about 17k. Thats about 20k more mins than Raja has player, over double what he has played.
Now get me clear, I’m not saying Raja easily has another 20,000 minutes left in his career, because he doesn’t. However I am saying that Raja has alot less miles on his legs than you would think, and for the record he is in pretty good shape to.
Maybe if we can compare it this way. Kobe could be a 2001 sports car with 198,005 miles on it while Raja is a 1997 Honda Civic with 86,678 miles on it. Now once again I’m not saying that the Civic will go another 100k + miles without breaking down but it sure as well has some life in it.
So maybe Raja will be one of those players that will be able to play till he’s 40, maybe not. For me though, I’m on the positive side of this conversation, I don’t think he will have a problem playing starting minutes for the Jazz and should still be running when his contract ends in a few years.
Raja also said that last few seasons that have plagued him with injuries and little playing time will actually be good for him this year because he has gotten plenty of rest on his legs and stuff.
So will Raja be the first one down the court on a fast break, or will he be the last? I guess we will just have to keep waiting for the season to start already to find out…
Replies: 12
Views: 794
12 Responses
I think minutes played is a huge deal but I do think once you reach a certain age it does catch up with you no matter how few minutes you’ve played.
I think Raja has a few years left adn I for one am very excited to see him play once again for the Jazz.
First of all a Honda will keep going forever if you don’t crash it! Just kidding, well sort of. I agree though, he doesn’t have a ton of minutes left, but he’s got a little left in the tank! I am still wishing we had Wes, but what’s done is done. I think the Jazz made the right decision and got the best availabe option in my man Bell! Better yet he spurned Kobe to join us, why shouldn’t you love this guy?
Nice post, thanks for putting that information together. I think you have a good point here in terms of minutes played but I think that age does matter to an extent.
While I myself am only 18 and can play game after game after game and still want to keep playing my father who is just under 40 seems to only be able to play one or two games before he is done. Now this has nothing to do with being in shape because my dad runs and works out daily, I would even go as far as to say that he is in better shape than I am. The reason he can only play a few games is because his joints and muscles just aren’t what they used to be, and he hasn’t played even close to what Raja has played.
Now I understand that when talking about professional athletes is hard to compare them to normal people (physically), however the affects that age have on the body are pretty similar no matter who you are. I think you also have to take into consideration that Raja has had injuries over the past few seasons. While they weren’t huge career ending injuries, it is still cause for concern. The older you get, the more injury prone you are. While I think Raja still has a lot left in the tank, I wouldn’t be surprised if he missed something like 15-20 games this year due to a random injury.
Was it David Locke that referred to the “40,000″ minute plateau as one that even when the most hardy players hit they immediately went downhill on a regular basis.
Here are some links that discuss the 40K minute theory:
http://www.clublakers.com/lakers-discussion/who-heard-the-000-minute-theory-t119379.html
http://celticshub.com/2010/01/17/sunday-notebook-practice-hijinks-minutes-issues-and-oh-hey-did-you-know-the-cs-have-no-chance/
Enjoy!
By this logic, Fes should be able to play until he’s 60…
ha! I do believe age still plays into things. A 34 year old’s body reacts differently than a 30 year olds. ( I should know, I remember being able to take a fall snowboarding a few years ago and now… not so much)
ROFL. Raja Bell can “nail three’s (sic) with ease”? What the heck player have you been watching? I get that for his career he has hit at a 41% rate, which is actually quite good, but to nail those shots, you have to first get open for them. The last two years have shown just how much Bell’s legs have slowed down, with that fact reflected both in his defensive rating (the worst 2 years of his career) and his number of 3p attempts per game. He’s still hitting them at a reasonable clip, but he can’t attempt as many because he’s too slow to get to the spot and get open very often. That will only be accentuated with another year tacked on. I don’t think we can expect much from Raj this year.
@ Chris. Ok first off that was a side comment. When I said he can nail threes with ease what I mean is that he is a better than average three point shooter. That’s it.
Oh and by the way, of course he is going to have less 3pt attempts the last two seasons, I mean he did only play like 73 games total.
Kyle, I gotta hand it to you, you certainly do your homework. But you always seem to draw the most argumentative conclusions based on your findings. Is minutes played in a game really the only thing that slows a 34 year old body down? The remainder of Bell’s career is going to based on his own workouts, and need to succeed. Age comes to everyone, but even at 50 you can still be in the best shape of your life with a “bowflex body”.(i watch a lot of tv) People get old and slow down without ever playing any NBA minutes. Its a fact of life. I think when you get older you will understand this better.
@ Kalab, I do understand this, I mentioned twice in my post that just because he has lots of less minutes I am not saying he can go and double them before he retires, my main point of the blog was to say that there is a difference between a 34 year nba player with 30,000 + mins and one with 20,000- mins.
If you took two identical 34 yr olds, and only difference was the amount of playing time, who would you pick?
Playing time = experience, are you sure they would be “identical”? Sorry bud, I like your energy but I cant follow the logic of this. I think its too hard to make comparisons based on age alone. Especially when one is an MVP and an all star his whole career and the other simply is not. I love Bell tho, great pick up by the Jazz.
@ Kaleb
when I said “If you took two identical 34 yr olds, and only difference was the amount of playing time, who would you pick?” I was NOT reffering to kobe and bell. I was reffering to “two identical 34 yr olds”