Adam Silver talks load management, calls out Spurs executive

[s3antana5757]

I'm fine with rest in order to avoid injuries, no problem at all. If we get to see healthy star players in the playoffs more than injured ones, hell, sign me right up. Some people will miss their favorite player one game? Sad but it happens

Agreed. The easy retort this is “if I don’t rest my player for one game now, he’s going to miss 10 later”

[IAMZOOTED2]

Weak sauce by Silver here and he ought to be ashamed. Naming the Spurs as culprits is akin to blaming tanking on Hinkie. People do it, sure, but those who do suffer from low mental capacity.

[DwayneSchintzus]

we never would have made the Finals in 2013 and won the title in 2014 without load management, so we Spurs fans don't GAF

[druggas]

we never would have made the Finals in 2013 and won the title in 2014 without load management, so we Spurs fans don't GAF

Pop load managed Timmy in the 2013 finals and they lost because of it. Remember that game?

[Memories]

I think this is a big problem for the league-it's one of the reasons I would reduce the schedule to 76 games, over the same time period. Somehow the teams would have to agree then to no more rest-and 6 fewer games would reduce injuries a bit, and improve the overall play

Nah screw that. Players will still complain about too many games and still have rest days. Then the argument will be dropping it to 68 games, than 62, and so on and so forth...with players still having rest days.

Fact of the matter is: Richard Jefferson is right. We're so much more advanced in the medical field, performance enhancements, training regimes, etc, yet players can no longer play 40+ minutes like players used to before the end of the late 2000s. When there is so much rest schedules in between, much less back to backs, better flights, hotels, trainers, etc. And quite frankly, getting paid A WHOLE LOT MORE.

Players today are way over privileged when it comes to this topic.

[WarriorGM]

No sympathy for Silver. Gambling? Play-ins? Pffft. There should be more load managing not less.

[Masigond]

Fans pay to see the star players, and teams don't want to risk injuries to have their players available when it matters. So talk about resting them when the lead is big enough. That's no problem (actually running up the score is quite frowned upon, so taking the star players out is wanted by many in certain occasions), but resting them for the whole game (which can be rather unimportant as there are way too many of them and often the opponent is weak) is that much of a difference? At least the Spurs had the decency of making some of the best jokes about it. DND - Old!

[Memories]

AC Green should probably be a hall of famer considering his consecutive played games streak. Since apparently, the complaint is too many games despite having much less back to backs and rest days compared to back in the day.

[RoyceDa59]

Players should get paid for games played, period.

[DwayneSchintzus]

we never would have made the Finals in 2013 and won the title in 2014 without load management, so we Spurs fans don't GAF

Pop load managed Timmy in the 2013 finals and they lost because of it. Remember that game?

You mean Game 6? That wasn't load management, he took him out so they could switch everything and it backfired. Load management is when you sit someone entire games, not situationally with 30 seconds left in a game or whatever

[LuDux1]

In an earlier era, top players like Kareem, Wilt, Jordan and Malone routinely played heavy minutes for 80 games - the NBA'S marathon RS.

Watch on YouTube

[Bornstellar]

**** Adam Silver. Spurs started resting their OLD guys who had won 3 rings together already, year after year of deep playoff run. Nowhere close to the same context as just giving healthy 26 year old players the night off just because.

And the Spurs were so good at that time that they'd routinely still hammer the other team even with their old guys out. Its not like the product suffered. Silver can suck it

[LuDux1]

Sign on the wall says "basketball innovation". I'm pretty sure commissioner was awarding Spurs for innovating load management

[Bornstellar]

Also why is he calling out the former GM and not the coach who is in charge of who plays? Silver doesn't have the balls to call Pop out directly I guess

[HabsAndDubs]

Either shorten the season or implement a reverse lottery- 14th place gets highest odds, 30 gets lowest. Players play too many games at too high a level and for many teams those games aren’t important. Is a player really going to risk injury to play in game 70, his team at 11-58 and the opponent around the same record? No, nor should they. I do sympathize with the fan angle- you go to games to see good players play basketball, but at the end of the day, this is an extremely physically demanding job, and if you want everyone to show up every day and give it your all, the games either have to mean more or there has to be fewer games. There is way too much fat during the regular season.

[MoMoneyMoProbs]

Players should get paid for games played, period.

This.

[MoMoneyMoProbs]

I feel the game has gotten a lot softer over the last few decades but players are load managing more. Are players breaking down easier?

Jordan used to get hammered but played 82 games in 9 of the 15 seasons he played, including 82 in his final year after the retirement return. Man was 39.

[CharityStripe34]

The load-management stuff is stupid. How many times do people make threads talking about "If player X wasn't hurt, the playoffs would be different?" There's an argument to be made that because players don't play as often (or as many minutes) their bodies are not used to the increased intensity and physicality of the playoffs. Injuries will always be a part of the game, it's part of the attrition of sports.

If they shorten the season to 72 games, teams will still load-manage players and will only play 55 or so games. We're in an era where there are the fewest amount of b2b games ever, chartered flights, a full gamut of team physicians/nutritionists/chefs, etc.

At this point cut the pretense and just have a 44 game season with 12 playoff teams. Then every single statistic and championship can have an asterisk attached after the next CBA. And it would make it all the more hilarious when Kawhi Leonard only plays 21 games a year.

[TwitterFingers]

The Spurs philosophy might work it might not, but it’s been bad for the nba. I can’t respect when you’re willing to compromise league integrity as the cost of winning. That why I don’t mess with the Spurs. I don’t care if they use to play beautiful basketball. I will alway feel negatively towards them.

[druggas]

Use the bench more and you wouldn't need load management.
"Bench management" should be the new buzz word.