Marilyn Dubinski: My general thought process has been that, with a few exceptions, if a player suddenly misses one random game with a mysterious injury (like Keldon Johnson in Houston), it’s a “strategic” injury. Devin Vassell’s random rest games make sense with his finicky knee, and obviously Jakob Poeltl’s knee, Jeremy Sochan’s quad, and Zach Collins leg (to name a few off the top of my head) were not fake. But overall, the Spurs are definitely using any little bump or bruise (conceived or otherwise) to their advantage.
Mark Barrington: They’re real, of course, but maybe they’re injuries that players would play through on a contending team.