> One NBA GM told me, as far as the rules and scheduling go, “If they made the schedule 60 games, players could find a way to load manage and do it for 40 games instead.” He’s of the mindset that load management is here to stay.
> I think, ultimately, games played should matter, but where’s the cutoff? I’ve had other colleagues who are voting that are having a tough time on this. What do you do with a guy like Anthony Davis, who’s got 55 games played at the moment? Durant has 47 games. Kawhi Leonard has 50 games played. LeBron James has 54 games played. Devin Booker has 53 games played.
> For some, I think they’re hoping that this will help with players trying to load manage in some form, but it’s going to have a big impact on the awards, no question.
[Source](https://hoopshype.com/lists/nba-rumors-cba-intel-what-it-means-going-forward/)
by iksnet
42 Comments
Simple. Just make the regular season 6 games.
This is probably untrue. Sports science has shown that playing maximal intensity more than twice a week leads to increased injury risk, that’s why guys prone to injury will sit back to backs.
With a 60 game season, you’d have about 2 games a week. You’d have fewer injuries from fewer games, and guys wouldn’t have to sit. Also with fewer games, the schedule would be more bunched up with team records, so every game would have more meaning – you’d be less likely to have days like today where 26/30 teams don’t care if they win or lose.
I don’t believe a single word of it. Would love to know if there’s % of games played stats for shortened seasons. I’d absolutely guarantee players play a much higher percentage of games in those seasons.
NBA GMs blaming players for this is hilarious. Ya’ll motherfuckers want load management just as much as they do.
Load management is incredibly overstated.
I believe he is 100% correct. The fact is staying fresh and trying to at least lessen the injury risk is just too important. We’ve seen players tire out as the playoffs go on. That’s too important.
On one hand, no shit Sherlock
On the other hand, I find it interesting they put the onus on the players sitting as if it’s not the front office/medical stuff making the decision. You won’t find a player admitting they sat by their own choice.
Each trophy should have “The best ability is availability” etched on fine print.
Only way to combat this is to pay the players only for the games they play …. example contract is 4.8M for the season , that’s $58,563 a game , so if that player misses 10 games , they lose $585,630
Kawhi Leonard started this. If you’re healthy and don’t play, you should not get paid. The new cba should have said if team doc, and independent doc say you are healthy, you play or don’t get a pay check.
Great idea. Lets just turn the regular season like the bubble then. No live audience, just stream it. Open the arenas only for the play offs. Or better yet let them play 2k for the regular season then real ball on the playoffs.
/S
I mean if the ultimate goal is winning as much as possible, particularly at the right time of year, there is no way you can get around this.
If there were no back to backs and 4 games in 5 nights kind of stuff then there would be a lot less load management. The main goal is to prevent injuries and the science has show that playing on a back to back means you’re more likely to get injured.
Not to mention framing this as the players won’t want to play no matter how many games there are is ridiculous, especially when you consider that the medical staff and team mostly decide when a player has to sit. Lots of media and fans want to blame the players and frame them as lazy and not wanting to play when In fact they’re just following medical advice.
Back-to-backs are more of a culprit than number of games played in the season.
My wife and I have a motto. “Get paid as much as possible and work as little as possible.” Turns out that’s what everybody wants.
This is such a dipshit take said with all the bravado of a Wendy’s manager asking you to skip your lunch break. If there are fewer games, each game becomes more important and there is a greater penalty for sitting. If the NBA only played 40 games and your best player sits when healthy, they absence is twice as powerful and the loss is twice as painful.
Do NFL players sit for five games when healthy?
What NBA owners aren’t saying is that sitting a star player on the second night of back-to-back DOESN’T MATTER because the game DOESN’T MATTER.
The NBA should motivate players through meaningful games not by cracking a metaphorical whip. What a fucking idiot.
i can’t understand how it is possible. its usually the max contract guys who load manage and they all have over 100 million dollars contracts. I would love a job where I could load manage. Make the RS play twice against every team, one home game and one away game. thats it. Every game would matter and there wouldn’t be the need to load manage and all games would be more competitive.
Gonna call my boss that I’mma rest tomorrow, it’s criminal to work on back-to-back days.
Pay them per game and watch them put load management in the bin in 5 seconds
Just play 38 games. No east/west. all combined. 3 points for a win, none for a loss. Player that finishes at the top wins championship. Last 2 get dropped to the g-league.
the schedule should just be 6 games against each divisional opponent and 2 against the rest of the league. that is 74 games.
At a certain point NBA players will start to look soft as hell. Especially when compared to other professional athletes, namely those in the NFL, MLB, and NHL.
i always get told by people irl that the regular season doesn’t matter. so how about we just take those pre season projections that are always 100% accurate and get rid of the regular season all together?
This is a bullshit narrative being spoon fed to us to distract from the fact that a shorter season would indeed make a superior product but would cost the league too much money. Don’t believe it. Load management and regular season games neither team cares about could and would be greatly reduced by a shorter season
We tried nothing and it didn’t work! Give me a break, your product sucks currently and everyone knows it. On top of the issues with the regular season, the NHL is going to begin its playoffs after the NBA and still wrap their season up 2 weeks sooner.
I imagine this same owner would probably tell us how “no one wants to work anymore” if you ask them.
IMO, It’s not about the number of games played but about the number of playoff spots.
Nearly 2/3 of the league will be in the playoffs anyway. The NBA really starts in April.
Also, there is very little benefit for getting a good seed.
Basically, one additional home court game.
So why risk your main players for something that can be reversed in 1 game. Especially when you have up to 4 chances to do it.
The last time a #1 seed won the championship was the 2016-’17 Warriors, and honestly, they were so good that they did it while load managing
Cutting a quarter of the games would make the product better. For sure.
And 60 games would limit back-to-backs to maybe once or twice per year.
Of course there’d be less resting. Players (like Kawhi or AD) that rest during back-to-backs wouldn’t rest if there was not a back-to-back. Basic common sense.
Though, obviously the NBA isn’t concerned with the quality of the product. Just TV money. Take the stupid play-in tourney. Adding four more teams (three of which are under. 500) has nothing to do with quality. And now there’s the “in-season tournament” that clearly no team worth a damn will even care about. Making the final four of the tournament means extra travel. Being in the finals of the tourney means an extra game.
This is what happens when 66% of the league makes the post season, the regular season is largely meaningless
League is out here creating problems and then blaming others that they happened
Increase it to 100 games and make them load manage to 82
one game a week like the NFL. also, full contact with pads like the NFL
They’re playing way too few games imo. Baseball players aren’t as soft cunts as hoopers.
Just make a DL like baseball. You’re hurt, you’re on the 10 day DL, for example. Load management goes away when you can’t just sit out a game without potentially missing numerous games over a predetermined length of time that could cost your team standing position.
I totally agree. It doesn’t matter what the number of games are, teams will still find a reason to sit players out. What they need to focus on is extending the season out a bit to get rid of back to backs and 5 games in 7 nights.
“You mean I can be in peak physical condition, maintain my averages, still get paid, and take days off? We just have to call it load management?”
I like how this asshole GM is saying “players could find a way” like it’s not mostly the GM’s and owners and training staff that are responsible for load management.
GMs will just say what owners want them to say, and owners will cling to any argument against shortening the season. Everyone with a brain can see the NBA regular season is too long. Too many games end up low or no stakes and back to backs are bad for everyone. But the owners will never ever voluntarily lose revenue by shortening the season. So instead you will hear them signal boost every braindead argument they can conceive of, such as this one.
#FFS the solution is so simple
Just get rid of pre-season
If pre-season starts early October, just start the regular season early October. No pre-season whatsoever.
Players off-season will be the same amount of time along with the end of the season.
Before someone says ” well actually dude this is absolutely impossible because the nba doesn’t want to compete with the NFL” Okay well the NBA needs to make a tradeoff somewhere. Either you have healthier players throughout the season, or you get to compete with the NFL for an extra few weeks which you can make up as the season goes because players are going to be able to actually play.
Require players to sit out for a full week if they have to miss a game. That helps the fans plan better, and you’ll see players play thru discomfort more often instead of resting because they don’t feel 100%.
Bring back the injured list. If you go on injured list you are out a minimum of 15 days. If you miss a game and are not on the injured list, you forfeit that game check.
As it should be. Think of all the quality players in the past that never lived up to their potential because they got injured and then were forced to play through injuries.
80s/90s era NBA players like Gianni’s (early knee injury) and Curry (ankle) would have been forced to play through their injuries and kill their careers. Complaining that players load manage should be expressed as a complaint that players aren’t forced to play through injury.
I’ll give you a load to manage
This year was awful. The regular season was bad. Players were resting every single night. There were no marquee games because players were resting.
I had League pass this year. Every time my wife and I put on a game we were excited about, guys were sitting. Imagine if we paid for tickets to the game? League pas felt like a ripoff because guys were sitting so much. It’s to the point where I’m starting to wonder if players even want to play anymore.
Either pay players per game played, or make the teams 10 players and not 12.
I’ve been watching since ‘94. If the league doesn’t change something soon, I’m done.