Pops: No more four games in five nights for Duncan

[Nolan]

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2012/01/24/spurs-notebook-duncan-plan-now-in-effect/

For the first time, Popovich has enumerated a specific plan to accomplish that. Duncan’s days of playing four games in five nights are over.

“That’s a rule,” Popovich said. “I’m not going to let him play four games in five nights. It’s not going to happen.”

Rest certainly paid off for Duncan on Monday night in New Orleans when, performing on two days rest for the first time this season, he tossed in a season-high 28 points. His last basket, a falling hook shot on Emeka Okafor with 1.4 seconds to go, provided the winning points in a 104-102 victory.

Though Duncan understands Popovich’s rest plan, it doesn’t mean he has to like it. Having played in 17 of 18 games this season, Duncan is averaging career lows in minutes (27:18) as well as points (13.1) and rebounds (7.3).

I like the plan and I think its great that he's trying to preserve Duncan as much as he can but I think this could get us into trouble later on in the season. Parker's already starting to collect nagging injuries and I won't be suprised if he misses games this season and Manu's already hurt.

[Donald Kaufman]

Good rule, though this whole "preserving older players for the playoffs" rule didn't quite pan out last season, did it?

I'm a year younger than TD, and although I obviously don't put my body through the physical grind of an NBA season, I know that it's not the actual game that wears you out so much, it's the rest time between games. Recuperation isn't so swift in the mid-30's.

[BFrizzy]

Its an interesting balance between giving him rest, and making sure he's in good form come the business end of the season. Rest him too much and he's probably not ready to step up to playoffs IMO.

I'm glad its not up to me because thats a tough balancing act to keep up.

[co_laper]

I don't really like it.

I'm all for resting guys when they have injuries (even if it's minor injuries) with the sense that you don't want all these minor injuries to add up or risk it becoming something bigger. But this is more of a move on resting the old guys because we don't want him to get too tired.

I see guys like Kobe still playing atleast 35 minutes. KG plays 30+ minutes. They're not playing any worse than TD. I don't know, i was never a fan of this rule. It feels like you're just spoiling your star player.