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I can already hear the groans that this is a knee-jerk hot take based on fear and unfounded expectation. Just hear me out:

-- we're in a funk, the chances that we lose the next 2 games are very solid w/ or w/o KI
-- Kyrie is expending a ton of energy to keep us in games
-- Houston has looked very good as a team thus far
-- we travel the next day to Detroit, another very good team early in the season
-- we know we're going to load manage Irving this season
-- who knows, maybe the rest of the team find their mojo if we remove the new security blanket

What do you think?

Absolutely not. Kyrie's teammates need to step up and play ball.

I voted yes for 3 reasons:

1. Rested Kyrie gives us a higher chance to win on Saturday against Detroit. Don’t want to see Kyrie guarding Harden and Westbrook all night.

2. Without Kyrie, we can give some PT to players like Nwaba, Temple, and maybe even Pinson.

3. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN. After what they pulled this week, it would be a big F U to ESPN to load manage him on a nationally televised game.

MrDollarBills wrote:Absolutely not. Kyrie's teammates need to step up and play ball.

I mean, those 2 things aren't mutually exclusive. Yes, the rest of the team needs to step up. Regardless, we knew going into this that it would be foolhardy of us to expect Irving to play 82 games. I have him in the 72-75 range, and this is one of the 10 or so where I would choose to rest him, regardless of our record. Knowing that we're playing less than our best, and we actually have a *chance* of getting off the schneid against Detroit the next night, I think it's the prudent move from Atkinson. Both games will be tough with or without KI, but I could see us playing the odds and being smart with rest for a long season.

So, since you're in favor of playing Kyrie on Friday, would you choose to rest him on Saturday? Or play him both games? Do you even acknowledge any additional risk in playing him such heavy usage on short rest?

He will be load managed against Detroit.

3pt_chucker wrote:He will be load managed against Detroit.

Are you saying you would prefer that? Or that you have some inside source? Or both???

As we're playing presently, I think we have a 20% chance of beating HOU with Kyrie, 10% without him. They're really good, and they know their identity and role like very few teams do at this point in the season.

Then, I think we have a 40% chance of beating Detroit IF we rest Kyrie Friday. IMO, we'd have a 30% chance of winning with Kyrie on no rest, and a 20% chance without him. Remember, they've plastered Indiana twice already this season.

Cards face-up, there's a very real chance that we drop both games, no matter what we do. We're just not playing well right now, and load management isn't going to be a panacea, nor do I expect that. For my money, I'd rather push all my chips in on stealing one in Motor City wit ha rested Irving, than use him in the one we have very little chance of winning with or without him.

Team has to step up that’s it.

ecuhus1981 wrote:

MrDollarBills wrote:Absolutely not. Kyrie's teammates need to step up and play ball.

I mean, those 2 things aren't mutually exclusive. Yes, the rest of the team needs to step up. Regardless, we knew going into this that it would be foolhardy of us to expect Irving to play 82 games. I have him in the 72-75 range, and this is one of the 10 or so where I would choose to rest him, regardless of our record. Knowing that we're playing less than our best, and we actually have a *chance* of getting off the schneid against Detroit the next night, I think it's the prudent move from Atkinson. Both games will be tough with or without KI, but I could see us playing the odds and being smart with rest for a long season.

So, since you're in favor of playing Kyrie on Friday, would you choose to rest him on Saturday? Or play him both games? Do you even acknowledge any additional risk in playing him such heavy usage on short rest?

Kyrie's usage wouldn't be so high if the guys who have been here for the last few years would get their asses in gear.

And yes, I play him in both games. It's November, not March.

Definitely not.....A lot of people paid good money to go to this game.

I'm all for load management but we're 4 games in. The team needs reps together.

MGrand15 wrote:I'm all for load management but we're 4 games in. The team needs reps together.

I feel you, for all the individual benefits of load management, it can also have a negative impact on team cohesion.

But it's not unheard-of to start load managing form the beginning of the season. Kawhi already sat out his first game earlier this week. You will see it more and more with stars and deeper teams, especially on back-to-backs. I know we all want a show, but we have to have a longer view than just the next game.

Are you kidding me? You want to ensure we start out 1-4?

That's not something we can afford. We need to find a way to get back to .500.

Of course I don't want to be 1-4. But think about it, Houston is a good deal better than any team we've faced thus far. Even if we clean up some things and they have an off night, I don't see us even staying close to the Rockets.

That's still not justification on its own for sitting Irving. But that paired with the fact that we have a winnable game the next night, leads me to believe that we should sit him.

Hello Brooklyn wrote:Are you kidding me? You want to ensure we start out 1-4?

That's not something we can afford. We need to find a way to get back to .500.

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What the heck kind of question is this? Hell no . We would get blown out by 30 points without him right now. Maybe on back to back games though, like what the Clips are doing with Kawhi.

At the moment, maybe just manage his minutes in this back to back, but I don't necessarily want to see him sit out games early.

OTOH, maybe there's no better way to challenge the team than to ask them to step up without Kyrie on the floor. Its just shocking how bad our young core has been after how things came together last season.

Kyrie is expending a ton of energy to keep us in games

This is something that I'm really not liking, so far. To see Kyrie borderline exhausted at the end of games, yet forced to take huge shots to bail us out, over and over again. Like, now that we've seen how amazing he is at that-- I want to be surprised & delighted by that stuff, not something I'm relentlessly spoiled upon.

But yeah, I LOVE the idea of testing the rest of the team against a powerhouse like Houston, then bringing Kyrie back fresh, the next day. For one thing, the rest of the team has certainly earned themselves that. In spades, really. But more than that, it might actually be good for them. Because whether they get thumped or whether they step up, either way I see it being highly productive to the bottom line.

Also, in the visceral sense, this would be kind of nice to help silence all the shut-ins babbling about 'the Nets doing poorly because they're led by Kyrie.' At the same time, if the Nets somehow do well in spite of Kyrie's absence, I like how that helps the team (with as many new faces as it has) learn some important lessons about itself.

In other words: HELL, YEAH!

MGrand15 wrote:I'm all for load management but we're 4 games in. The team needs reps together.

A huge part of the problem was the lack of preseason reps as is. Let them play through it, it feels like people are giving up after 4 games.

Papi_swav wrote:What the heck kind of question is this? Hell no . We would get blown out by 30 points without him right now. Maybe on back to back games though, like what the Clips are doing with Kawhi.

That's my point, we ARE on a back-to-back today and tomorrow. And just like the Clips, they rested Kawhi on the front end of the back-to-back, because the matchup and odds dictated that that was the smarter choice. They lost the one in which KL didn't play (@UTA), which was going to be a tougher match anyway. And they played him in the one they were likelier to win (SAS), which they did.

You are saying that you disagree with me, but your justification is exactly my point!

ecuhus1981 wrote:

3pt_chucker wrote:He will be load managed against Detroit.

Are you saying you would prefer that? Or that you have some inside source? Or both???

As we're playing presently, I think we have a 20% chance of beating HOU with Kyrie, 10% without him. They're really good, and they know their identity and role like very few teams do at this point in the season.

Then, I think we have a 40% chance of beating Detroit IF we rest Kyrie Friday. IMO, we'd have a 30% chance of winning with Kyrie on no rest, and a 20% chance without him. Remember, they've plastered Indiana twice already this season.

Cards face-up, there's a very real chance that we drop both games, no matter what we do. We're just not playing well right now, and load management isn't going to be a panacea, nor do I expect that. For my money, I'd rather push all my chips in on stealing one in Motor City wit ha rested Irving, than use him in the one we have very little chance of winning with or without him.

I'm basing it off of how many mins he's played(already 2 OTs), how hard he has had to play on both ends and our history of managing certain players.

I don't really think they care at this point of the season about strategizing wins.

Indiana was our first truly bad game and even then it was mainly the 2nd half. We are literally FTs away from being 3-1.

I get that it feels like we should panic but it's a long season and it's way too early to start panicking. (Unless it's about defense)

MrDollarBills wrote:

MGrand15 wrote:I'm all for load management but we're 4 games in. The team needs reps together.

A huge part of the problem was the lack of preseason reps as is. Let them play through it, it feels like people are giving up after 4 games.

You make a valid point, MDB, so let me be clear: this question is not about giving up on the season.

I still have high hopes for this squad. You're right, due to a phantom elbow in practice (I'll bet it was Rodi, but that's beside the point!), we didn't to integrate Kyrie into the system and the rest of the team on-court in live games during preseason. It's a tough break, and it's sunk cost at this point.

Trying to force-feed court time for cohesion by playing a superstar (who has never played more than 75 games in any regular season) in every game is throwing good money after bad. Sports science tells us that repetitive stress injuries are higher during back-to-backs, especially for players who are prone to those types of injuries (see: Irving, Kyrie). We knew when we signed Irving that load management was going to be a requirement. That starts from the very beginning of the season, in November just as much as in March.

The other side of this coin is as gigantes mentioned, the rest of this team needs a harsh dose of reality. As heart-wrenching as our losses have been, we look too comfortable thinking that big brother Kyrie is going to rescue us. They do need time to gel with Kyrie, but more than that, they need to do some heavy lifting of their own to remind themselves that they can't wait for Kyrie to check in and save the day. We might lose by 40 instead of by 20, but we're gonna need to rest Kyrie anyway, and this could come at the perfect time to light a fire underneath our under-performing supporting cast. Then, we get back to gelling tomorrow in Detroit.