Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon critiques NBA’s playoff schedule, says it’s leading to lower level of basketball

The second round of the 2025 playoffs was dominated by injuries. All three All-Stars from the Cleveland Cavaliers were hurt by the end of their second-round loss. The Boston Celtics was banged up even before Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles, with Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown playing through pain and Kristaps Porziņģis struggling with an illness. Stephen Curry missed almost the entirety of the Golden State Warriors‘ second-round matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a hamstring injury. And then, on Sunday, Aaron Gordon played through a hamstring injury as the Denver Nuggets were eliminated by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Gordon suffered that injury on Thursday night in Game 6. He played again roughly 60 hours later on Sunday afternoon. It was a valiant effort as he pulled in 11 rebounds in defeat, but he was visibly hobbled. A number of players were throughout this round. And while an extra day wasn’t going to fix his hamstring, Gordon noted just how tough the 2025 postseason schedule has been on him and everyone else in the playoff field.

“I would really, really appreciate it if there were a couple of days in between games in the playoffs instead of every other day,” Gordon said. “The product of the game would be a lot better. You’ll see a higher level of basketball. Probably less blowouts.” 

While the second round is not technically every other day completely, that is the standard, and things often get even tighter. For instance, the Nuggets and Thunder played Game 3 on a Friday night and then turned around and played Game 4 on a Sunday afternoon, tipping only around 39 hours after their previous game had concluded. Both conference finals series are scheduled to play every other day in order to set up for the NBA Finals to begin as scheduled on June 5.

Whether a condensed schedule is causing or exacerbating injuries is impossible to truly say. What we can state confidently is that modern basketball is more physically taxing than the sport used to be. Players have to cover more distance. Defense is almost always a five-man proposition now, and it’s harder for players to find rest on that end of the court. By the time players get to May and June, their teams have typically played 90 or more games. They are exhausted, and that makes them sloppy and potentially prone to injury.

Is there a solution here? Not an easy one. The NBA could build extra rest days into the schedule, but they’d have to find those days somewhere. That would mean starting the season earlier, finishing it later, removing regular-season games or taking away regular-season rest days. Each of those solutions come with drawbacks, some financial and others physical.

But the last few NBA postseasons have been defined by wear and tear. Players keep getting hurt. Teams keep running out of gas. And it’s ultimately hurting the product for both the players and the fans. Gordon isn’t the first person to address these problems, but until the league and the players as a whole are willing to make a sacrifice of some sort elsewhere, there just isn’t an easy way to fix this.