Quality Not Quantity

The Growing Trend of Resting Players in the NBA

By all accounts the 2014-15 NBA season has been nothing short of amazing to this point. There have been several intriguing story lines that seem to provide something for everyone. Whether it’s LeBron James’ homecoming, the emergence of James Harden and Steph Curry as MVP candidates, Russell Westbrook being a one-man wrecking crew, the emergence of the Atlanta Hawks or a trade deadline that was nearly incomprehensible, this season has kept even the most marginal fans entertained. However, there is one story line that leaves fans wanting more; resting players.

Today’s NBA has become a balancing act for teams where different factors are seemingly always at odds with each other. Should teams go all out for a win at the risk of fatiguing a player? Should a player push himself back early from injury in order to help his team make a push for a playoff spot? Should teams rest players with the hopes that they will perform better in future games? All of these are questions that would not have been posed in 80’s or 90’s, but have now come to the forefront of NBA discussion. This season alone there are examples of each of these questions. LeBron James’ two week absence to “heal”, Kevin Durant re-aggravating the fracture in his foot, and of course Greg Popovich being Greg Popovich.

In November of 2012 Greg Popovich decided to rest 4 of his top 5 starting players in what would be a Finals preview versus the Miami Heat. At the time it was surprising and disappointing. The NBA would go on to fine the Spurs $250,000 for their actions, but since then it has become commonplace for coach Pop to rest his aging players on back-to-backs as well as to stringently limit minutes. Of course, a single coach resting players is hardly news worthy in a league with 30 teams playing 82 games each year, but, after basketball, the NBA’s favourite game is follow the leader, and pretty much every coach is following Pop. 

Since then more and more coaches have been resting their players in the hopes of having an improved performance come playoff time. This season seemingly all the top teams have rested players throughout the season: Cavs, Hawks, Warriors, Griz, the list goes on and on. Obviously resting players has its benefits: limitation of injuries, less fatigue, giving different players a chance to shine and ideally higher quality basketball come playoff time. It’s easy to see why coaches would want to give their stars as much rest as possible, but there is one major downside to it: it fucking sucks for the fans. 

Now here is the part where I was planning on ranting and raging about how unfair it is for the fans of the game to have to pay top quality price for low quality basketball, but instead I’ll leave you with something I saw on Reddit last week in response to Steve Kerr resting Iguodala , Bogut, Thompson and Curry against the Denver Nuggets:

I don’t think anyone can read that without having their heart sink into their feet. It’s pathetic, plain and simple. It even prompted Klay Thompson’s father to call it “a disgrace to the fans” and to question “what's going on?” That’s the question that should be on every NBA fans mind right now, and Mr. Thompson is no stranger to the game having played over a decade in the league during a time in which a player resting would be ridiculed and seen as outrageous. If those comments aren’t enough to make you scratch your head a little here’s a couple of interesting stats for you: during Michael Jordan’s six champion years he missed a TOTAL of 6 games. That’s right six, total, including injuries. Not good enough for you? Over 18 seasons of hall of fame basketball Karl Malone missed EIGHT GAMES. To put this in perspective with the modern day NBA, Tim Duncan missed eight games last year with “DNP – Coach’s Decision”. 

I’m doing everything in my power not to go outside and start yelling at everybody about how ridiculous this is. The most maddening part of it all is that it’s not going to change anytime soon. Greg Popovich has set the unfortunate precedent of how to succeed in the NBA. An NBA that used to be about ‘giving it all every night’ has changed to an NBA that is all about ‘giving yourself the best chance of winning’ and the cost of that change is being put solely on the fans. 

Look, it’s simple a change needs to be made, but it’s easier said than done. Unfortunately, teams are in an awkward position; the expectation is to win a championship and it appears the best way to improve your chances at doing so are by resting players. So what can be done? Personally I believe every player should play in any game that they are capable. Imposing minute limitations in games instead of resting players would allow star players to get the rest they apparently need while not leaving the fans feeling cheated. Of course, to a coach, it may just seem that this is unnecessarily putting a player in the way of injury. Another potential change is the length of the season.  Some even believe this is much more beneficial than any form of minute limitation. Even the best player on the planet has chimed in on the subject; Lebron James has said, "The minutes doesn't mean anything. We can play 50-minute games if we had to. It's just the games. We all as players think it's too many games. In our season, 82 games is a lot.”

It’s certainly something to be considered by teams and the NBA alike, with no clear resolution in sight. The NBA likely has no desired to cut down on games and lose additional revenue, while players seem to think that limiting minutes isn’t doing enough. Although there is no clear consensus on how to remedy the situation one thing is clear; the resting of star players is a show of utter disrespect towards the fans and needs to be stopped.  

- A disrespected fan (Colin)