Adam Silver talks load management, calls out Spurs executive

[sp6r=underrated]

The NBA is in a tough spot.

1. Modern research shows rest lowers injury risk and improves recovery.
2. 53% of the NBA makes the playoffs every year so there isn't much cost.
3. NBA revenue doesn't scale linearly because removing 1 or even 10 games won't impact TV ratings.

The NBA could try to increase the reward for doing well in the RS/cost for doing poorly.
Option: The NBA could increase the cost for resting by eliminating playoff spots. As an example, 6 teams makes the playoffs in each conference. There is a play-in game for the final spot.

Fans complain about the predictability of the NBA playoffs and option 1 increases it. Option 1 eliminates 4 first round series which hurts TV.

I actually like option and think it would reduce tanking while keeping enough teams playoff viable fans still pay attention.

[Trey24]

His body language and tone was very STERN on this. No pun intended. Great message to send.

It would be one thing if players were hurt less this way but it seems like injuries are more common now than 80s/90s.

[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?

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 :lol:

I know I was being facetious.

[FrodoFraggins]

There are SOOOO many issues bigger than load management that I don't see why he'd bother bringing it up. Plus he's completely powerless to change it anyway.

I have a much bigger problem with Wall being prevented from playing at all to help a team tank. That's super F'd up. It's clear that the NBA has a tanking problem that needs to be addressed first. Most likely with even more draft adjustments for perennial losers/tankers. Good teams resting key players is a non issue and silver only cares when it's a national game anyway.

[MagicTownBaller]

Easy method, give the fans 75% back on face value of their ticket if one of either teams too 3 players sit, even with injuries.

[Backcountry]

For Silver, this has little to do with the fans. It has more to do with the leagues sports betting partnerships. It hurts their line when they set odds then star players sit.

[sp6r=underrated]

There are SOOOO many issues bigger than load management that I don't see why he'd bother bringing it up. Plus he's completely powerless to change it anyway.

I have a much bigger problem with Wall being prevented from playing at all to help a team tank. That's super F'd up. It's clear that the NBA has a tanking problem that needs to be addressed first. Most likely with even more draft adjustments for perennial losers/tankers. Good teams resting key players is a non issue and silver only cares when it's a national game anyway.

As someone who buys NBA tickets I get his concern, he's worried about NBA teams selling tickets to see Lebron play and find out the day of the game Lebron/Davis and other players fans have heard of our scratched. I don't think there is a solution but I get why the business end is annoyed.

But 100% agreement with you that tanking is a far bigger problem in the NBA. This decade we have had multiple franchises go on planned multi-year tank jobs.

There is basically no reason to watch the 2021-2023 Rockets just as there was no reason to watch the Hinkie era Sixers. That the NBA rewards team who forfeit games intentionally like the Rockets/Sixers with the top prospects while punishes teams that try to win basketball games (treadmill) is perverse.

Treadmill teams play actual basketball. The Hinkie era Sixers/current Rockets don't. They intentionally lose games. And the NBA CBA needs to be addressed to fix this. Maybe you lose lottery balls if your record drop below 27 wins. Or maybe you lose lottery balls for each consecutive year in the lottery.

But something needs to be done to prevent teams from not competing. This is competitive sports. Teams should try to win games.

I envy soccer fans who have promotion/relegation rather than these stupid cartels.

[sp6r=underrated]

For Silver, this has little to do with the fans. It has more to do with the leagues sports betting partnerships. It hurts their line when they set odds then star players sit.

Well, as someone who hates sports gambling, I'm glad something hurts sports leagues that encourage betting.

It is just gross watching NBA games now with the % of ads encouraging people to take up an activity that loses money. Anything that discourages people from doing so is a societal good.

[Tacoma]

Load management is a natural progression in sports and calling out the Spurs is scapegoating IMO.

In baseball, pitching complete games is becoming rare (top by a pitcher was only 3 last season). Not long ago, a 4-man pitching rotation was the norm, now it's 5. Why? Because players need recovery time to be at optimum. In the NBA, players don't go full out all the time and pace themselves as a form of self load management. Now it's just being institutionalized by teams.

If Silver wants to put his money where his mouth is, he can call for less games in regular season. But he won't do that because it's about gate receipts, TV contract commitments, etc. In other words, it's about money. Players don't want either because less games means less pay. So they have to "take" this recovery time in other ways, like load management. It is what it is.

[G35]

If one of the best most successful organization decides to rest player maybe instead of blaming them you take heed. The season is too long for the amount of specialization and off season training it now takes to be a top level NBA player. And quite frankly the vast majority of the fan base can't realistically consume the entire 82 +games a year of their on favorite team.

They were successful because they had Tim Duncan and all the way through year 14 year of his career he was playing 75+ games a season.

They were managing his minutes just like all old stars get managed. It was Kawhi who really took load management to the next level and started wanting random "sick days". This load management is like remote work, it doesn't work in all cases......

[Infinite Llamas]

Would it help if they made all contracts a percentage base pay and made the rest of it commensurate to how many games in an 82-game schedule they played?

I'm sure there are ways to work around workarounds as well (e.g. 20-minute minimum or something like that).

Yeah because without a minute minimum you’ll see Jrue playing 8 seconds in game 82.

Maybe in stars contracts, as crazy as it sounds, put in incentives for more games played and more minutes played?

[og15]

At least the Spurs were always honest about it and said they needed the rest so 'fine us'.

None of these fake injuries that most other teams have stated.

Well, the injuries aren't always fake persay, they just don't actually require having to sit, they are playable injuries.

They are a response to the fines for rest. There's no need to be defensive about it as Spurs fans, Spurs were trend setters, that's something to be proud of.

If one of the best most successful organization decides to rest player maybe instead of blaming them you take heed. The season is too long for the amount of specialization and off season training it now takes to be a top level NBA player. And quite frankly the vast majority of the fan base can't realistically consume the entire 82 +games a year of their on favorite team.

They were successful because they had Tim Duncan and all the way through year 14 year of his career he was playing 75+ games a season.

They were managing his minutes just like all old stars get managed. It was Kawhi who really took load management to the next level and started wanting random "sick days". This load management is like remote work, it doesn't work in all cases......

They did start management of his minutes well before he was "old". By 04-05 at 28 years old, he was playing 33 mpg when the league had 25+ guys playing ~38+ mpg. For example, KG his contemporary PF played 38 mpg that season and 39 mpg the next two seasons.

[bbalnation]

Adam has been showing his real vision & objectives more and more lately (the Gambling lobbys hold on the NBA, etc) and its not in line at all with what I have in mind- nor am I impressed.

Being proactive with the health of players as a response to the leagues schedule is nothing to publically shame others for, even if theres a perceived short term impact on profit.

It looks like the NBA is still doing pretty **** great financially, despite the beginning of load management, which is a reaction to a schedule littered with back to backs and unnecessary travel coast to coast.

ESPECIALLY when the NBA as a league is set to implement 60 games or less in the next decade. That reflects reality and truth in what RC Burford was thinking over a decade ago: along with many other players, health support staff and organizational management.

Come back and talk to me when "Adam" has a clue about player empowerment (entitlement?) He has no backbone

In this existing context & environment,

Player empowerment = employee labor rights

Wall / Bay Street folks & leaders of business organizations, for example, dont hear about entitlement when they ask for more benefits or additional shares (which NBA players can't receive systemically, despite being the core of the organization that brings billions in revenue, & most impactful department of employees).

Its interesting to see how many people advocate against athletes now that this type of $ is made and publically advertised, when professional athletes make up a fraction of the 0.1%/1% who generally has had access to ongoing generational wealth.

Your online advocacy against in this situation is noted; not that I care much for it.

[og15]

Load management is a natural progression in sports and calling out the Spurs is scapegoating IMO.

In baseball, pitching complete games is becoming rare (top by a pitcher was only 3 last season). Not long ago, a 4-man pitching rotation was the norm, now it's 5. Why? Because players need recovery time to be at optimum. In the NBA, players don't go full out all the time and pace themselves as a form of self load management. Now it's just being institutionalized by teams.

If Silver wants to put his money where his mouth is, he can call for less games in regular season. But he won't do that because it's about gate receipts, TV contract commitments, etc. In other words, it's about money. Players don't want either because less games means less pay. So they have to "take" this recovery time in other ways, like load management. It is what it is.

They need to come up with fully agreed upon load management rules, they are still trying to me figure it out. Load management is also maybe a progression of how much money teams are paying the players and teams fears of injury.

I get it though, fan buys tickets for a road team because they want to see certain players and then the guy is resting for injury prevention.

Fans should start getting warnings about buying tickets for back to back games and games where a team is playing 4 in 5 nights kinda stuff, so they know what they are getting into.

[righterwriter]

It's amazing to me that guys who get paid $20M/yr to play a six month season aren't able to show up for huge numbers of games.

I get resting your guys against Orlando or OKC a couple times per year, but the thing where guys take off 20 games is pathetic and should be a breach of contract.

[og15]

Easy method, give the fans 75% back on face value of their ticket if one of either teams too 3 players sit, even with injuries.

good luck on that one. Definitely wouldn't happen for actual injuries, but even if that was implemented, it would be like 10%, and they would make it something like "off a future ticket purchase"

[og15]

It's amazing to me that guys who get paid $20M/yr to play a six month season aren't able to show up for huge numbers of games.

I get resting your guys against Orlando or OKC a couple times per year, but the thing where guys take off 20 games is pathetic and should be a breach of contract.

OKC and Orlando fans want to be entertained too

[G R E Y]

Silver is right to call out the Spurs for this.
Popovich and the Spurs are the ones who perfected this strategy along with tanking, two of the most frustrating and shameful strategies for NBA teams to adopt in my opinion.

Yeah because Robinson's broken foot and his back injury (that later shortened his career) was faked during that so called 'tanking' year.

Lakers fans...

Not faked, Robinson was held back from returning so that Popovich could tank for Duncan after he fired Bob Hill.
1994-1996, Bob Hill: 124 wins-58 losses

It's as if Robinson was the only impactful Spur with injuries...

And how did Hill fare the rest of his NBA coaching career?

[Roscoe Sheed]

Perhaps this has already been mentioned (don’t have the time to read every post right now), but perhaps they could spread the season out even longer to avoid all back to backs if they are too afraid to lose money by shortening the season. If they end 2 weeks later, what’s the harm?

[sp6r=underrated]

Easy method, give the fans 75% back on face value of their ticket if one of either teams too 3 players sit, even with injuries.

good luck on that one. Definitely wouldn't happen for actual injuries, but even if that was implemented, it would be like 10%, and they would make it something like "off a future ticket purchase"

they'd give you 75% off

"for a ticket purchase when the road team is playing the 4th game on 5 nights"