Welcome to the B-Ball Brunch. Enjoy reading about my NBA musings about last night during your brunch hours.
Even robots like Kawhi Leonard need rest.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Gallardo/AP.)
Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers went for 38 points in a dominant fourth quarter against his former team, the Spurs. But the debate continues about what the people call “load management” these days. Gosh, I dislike that term. It’s otherwise known as… rest.
A Twitter friend didn’t seem too amused that Kawhi Leonard was resting a couple of days ago against Utah. I quickly said that it was a back-to-back. And with Kawhi’s injury history, I think he’ll probably play only 60-65 games per season the rest of his career. Is that a bad thing? It probably is for the fans. But look what an abbreviated season did for Kawhi; he dominated in the postseason last spring on his way to his second championship.
It’s why a lot of people advocate for a shorter season. Obviously, the players won’t be as tired after playing 60 games rather than 82 (which happens less often than not these days). And, yes, you see how coaches manage players’ minutes now. They don’t exhaust their stars to play 40-42 minutes a game anymore. Look at the difference between then and now when it comes to leaders of minutes played per game.
Data from Basketball Reference.
Yeah, you see the decrease in minutes for the leaders in that stat.
Tim Duncan was able to play 19 seasons without any major injuries. It was because Gregg Popovich, who gets a lot of credit for preserving his stars, managed Duncan’s minutes as he got older. While Duncan did play 36-40 minutes per game early in his career, it slowly whittled down to the high 20s in his last six seasons. And of course, we know the infamous time in 2012 the Spurs got fined a quarter of a million dollars because Popovich rested Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green. It was the fourth game in five days for the Spurs. Then-NBA commissioner David Stern levied the fine because it was a national TV game against the Heat AND the parties weren’t informed about these changes.
And I get that the fans have a right to complain about teams not playing their stars. They paid their hard-earned money to watch these guys play. Imagine spending your dollars making the trip to Los Angeles and watch the Lakers, only for the team to sit Anthony Davis and LeBron James. It IS frustrating. I get that.
But the NBA has a grueling schedule. Again, someone playing 82 games is not common anymore. The current iron man streak belongs to Joe Ingles, who has played the last 309 games. That seems so impressive right now. But compared to A.C. Green, who played 1,192 straight games, that feels like a sprint.
The NBA has done steps to accomodate the players. There are still back-to-back games for teams but they happen less often now. The four-games-out-of-five-days occurrences have been cut down. Players get a break for a whole week now instead of a weekend for the All-Star break. So the NBA understands.
But with the way players get injured and exhausted during their NBA careers, it’s understandable why a lot of stars get scheduled rest during the season. A lot of oldheads don’t like it but this is how players preserve their health and get to have extensive professional athletic careers. Quite frankly, it’s much better this way.
Bullet Passes
*Good to see Michael Porter, Jr. make his NBA debut. He scored 15 points for the Denver Nuggets.
*However, it was Jahlil Okafor who stole the show. He got 26 points and even played some good defense against Nikola Jokic. The Pelicans are on the board with their first win.
*And then there was one. As mentioned earlier, the Spurs lost to the Clippers, which leaves the Sixers as the only unblemished team left in the league. And we’re just going into November.
*With the Pelicans winning, that leaves Sacramento as the only team without a win. It’s quite disappointing, really.
*Charles Barkley called the Karl-Anthony Towns/Joel Embiid skirmish a snuggle party. To be fair, it was mostly a wrestling match. But the thing is you can’t really throw any punches in the NBA because that warrants a larger suspension. In a “fight” like this, you’re going to see a lot more… snuggles.
*I’ll probably expand on this in the future but I had no idea Kendrick Nunn went undrafted because of his off-the-court behavior. It mostly went unnoticed in the media. I certainly didn’t know any better. Obviously, it sucks. As for others, it’s like… how much are you willing to compromise your morals to win or do better? It’s honestly a line EVERYONE has to face at some point. Again, I’ll probably talk about this in the future. And it’s never an easy topic to talk about.
Watch This Play
Gary Harris gives Jahlil Okafor the business.
(VIDEO CREDIT: House of Highlights.)
Chris Webber was so excited!
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
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