In a recent memo sent by the NBA, they explained how resting players for game days or on back-to-backs does not actually reduce the risk of injury on the court. In a 57-page report, the league looked into the matter and concluded that there is no real benefit for load management.
“Results from these analyses do not suggest that missing games for rest or load management — or having longer breaks between game participation — reduces future in-season injury risk,” the report said, via Tim Bontemps. “In addition, injury rates were not found to be higher during or immediately following periods of a dense schedule.”
The NBA has been at war with teams over the current format of the regular-season schedule. In recent years, while it’s become popular for teams to rest their players, the fans have grown increasingly hostile toward the tradition and it’s been a subject of great controversy. Now, it appears the NBA is finally taking a stand with these new rules and some are hoping it’s the beginning of the end of this practice.
War Against Load Management
The origin of load management traces back to Gregg Popovich and the legendary “big three” Spurs of old. During a time when this strategy was relatively unheard of, Popovich started to sit all of his top guys for the sake of “preserving” their bodies and health for the playoffs. At the time, Popovich received a lot of heat for the decision but teams followed suit anyway and it became a very popular practice.
Today, “load management” is a widely recognized phrase and every team is guilty of it in some aspect. For teams like the Clippers and Brooklyn Nets, however, they’ve taken it to another level by sitting their top guys on a whim for several games in a row. Fortunately, unlike in years past, the NBA is taking action to stop this process and we saw that in full effect when they fined the Nets $100,000 for violating the NBA’s player participation policy. Judging by that, and this recent study, the league is ready to start seriously enforcing this new policy for every team.
How Will Players Respond?
Arguably the biggest question about this study is how it will fly for teams and players across the league. History says that players will continue to “rest” for games regardless of the NBA’s stance. Stephen Curry is currently listed as out against the Bucks for that very reason and there are no signs of remorse from him or the Warriors.
The truth is, until the NBA takes a more aggressive strategy to combat the tradition, it will always be a thing in the league. Players today are looking for any reason to shirk their duties and they aren’t about to let a memo get in the way of that now. Over the next few weeks and months, it’ll be interesting to see how load management is handled across the league and if the NBA is willing to take further action when teams keep resting their players for the sake of injury prevention. For now, this is good enough and it sends a message about where the league stands on this increasingly controversial issue.
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