When it comes to the regular season, teams have used more caution when it comes to how many minutes their star players are getting.
Load managing has been a hot topic in league circles for years as coaches and organizations do their best to keep their best players as fresh as possible for potential playoff runs. While it’s in the best interest of the franchises, it has come at the cost of fan viewership and excitement of the game.
The NBA has already taken steps to address the issue by requiring players to appear in at least 65 games in the regular season to be eligible for any awards handed out during the postseason. However, that still might not prevent teams from resting their players.
In order to give the league more power to dole out punishments to teams for strategically resting their stars, the NBA Board of Governors is expected to vote this week on new measures to prevent the practice from occurring, via Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Under new rules, teams would be fined $100K for a first violation, $250K for a second violation and $1 million more than the previous penalty for each additional violation, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/ZOQjJpoNaD
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 11, 2023
The NBA has also laid out the criteria for what constitutes a star player, via Shams Charania of The Athletic:
Under current discussions among team and league personnel, a star is defined by someone who's made an All-Star or All-NBA team in the past three seasons, sources said. https://t.co/2WBe1BPrUG
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 11, 2023
The financial hit teams would take for violating the proposed guidelines seem excessive, though if it passes would certainly make them think twice about sitting a star. The definition of what the league considers a star is also an interesting angle considering the age of some of the players that would likely be rested under normal conditions.
Teams led by older stars like the Los Angeles Lakers would probably vote against such measures being put into place, but it remains to be seen how the rest of the governors will view the new guidelines when they take a vote later this week.
It remains to be seen how things would work, but there could be some serious loopholes for teams to exploit if these rules are put into place so more discussion will definitely be needed before coming to a decision.
Anthony Davis made it clear to Lakers he wants to play fewer minutes at center
The Lakers would like to keep Anthony Davis as healthy as possible given his lengthy injury history and he has already tried to take matters into his own hands as he’s made it clear to the organization he would like to spend less time playing center.
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