Jazz Injury Bug is Catch-up for Past Luck

‘I guess,’ my neighbor was saying, ‘we were spoiled.’
Remember the days when you actually knew who the Jazz starters would be? Not any more. So far they have fielded seven different starting lineups this year, thanks to illness/injury and personal leave.
Yes, Jazz fans were spoiled. And they did get used to it. Karl Malone and John Stockton missed a total of eight games in their Jazz careers due to injury/illness. By comparison, the 2008 Jazz’s Big Two ‘ Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer ‘ have missed 19 games this year alone.
All totaled, the Jazz have missed 56 player-games this season.
Some theorize conditioning is the key to avoiding injuries. That depends on the type of injury. Muscle pulls may be related. But ankle and wrist sprains, etc., are happenstance, not conditioning matters.
Which brings up a point: As good as the Jazz were in the Stockton-Malone era, it was partly because they had their best players on the floor — every night. While other teams went through injury struggles, the Jazz just kept coming with their best. In 1991-92, the Jazz missed 14 player-games. Total. If Ike Austin hadn’t stepped on a ball during practice and fractured his foot ‘ missing the final five games ‘ the Jazz would have set an all-time NBA mark for fewest player-games missed in a season.
In 1990-91, Jazz players missed 36 games; the previous year they missed 27 games due to injury or illness.
There have been other bad injury years for the Jazz besides this one. Boozer missed 30 games in 2004-05 with injuries and another 48 the next season.
The Jazz’s injury problems probably aren’t even due to bad karma.
Most likely it’s just the law of averages.
This too shall pass.
Though maybe not this year.