Load management has been a hot-button NBA issue for pretty much a decade now. More specifically, load management when it comes to the NBA’s stars.
The league doesn’t like it when teams pull star players for rest, generally. But they especially don’t like it when it happens during big games. They’ve even instituted a team fine for when it happens.
This is a discussion that dates all the way back to 2012 when the San Antonio Spurs sat Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green ahead of a matchup against the Heat.
Fast forward 10 years later and this is still an issue the league thinks it has yet to solve, which is why Adam Silver is still talking about it.
Silver addressed the issue during a media availability session after an NBA Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. He also used it as a springboard to talk about potential mid-season tournaments.
“The other way we can get at it, in terms of player participation, is creating other incentives. The play-in tournament, I thought, was a beginning of creating renewed incentives for teams to remain competitive and be fighting for playoff position. It might be through in-season tournaments and changes in format where we can get at it.”
Those are such interesting comments coming at such an interesting time because, well, this hasn’t been that much of an issue this season.
Think about it. How many stars have we seen resting for long periods of time with mystery injuries? There haven’t been too many, as NBA analyst Tom Ziller writes here in his daily newsletter. There’ve been stars with legitimate injuries, of course, but not too many have sat from load management.
There was, of course, the Ben Simmons thing. But that was an overt trade demand that Simmons was even fined for. There’s also the John Wall situation with the Rockets where he hasn’t played a game this season but that’s also because the Rockets wanted him to sit.
That aside, the NBA thinks it needs solutions here. And we could start with things like no more back-to-back games. Or no more 4-games-in-5 nights stints. Especially no more east to west travel swings over a three-day period. Those stints are why players sit occasionally.
But on top of that? The league really needs to consider shortening or altering its schedule in some way. If Silver’s comments from the press conference hold true, they just might.
He said this is something they’re considering.
“I also have said in the past, if we have too many games, that’s something we should look at as well…It’s something, as we sit down and we’re looking at new media deals and looking at a new collective bargaining agreement, we will be studying.”
That’s a huge deal and a real solution to the problem the NBA seems to be looking to fix here. It’s also very encouraging to hear considering this isn’t something the league has seemed willing to do in the past.
Though load management hasn’t been as much of a problem now, it could certainly be one again in the future. Shortening the season should solve that. We’ll see where things go from here.
Keep in mind, though, that this is a conversation we’ve been having for years. In fact, Silver had similar comments three years ago in 2019 about this very subject. He told reporters that a shorter schedule is something the league will “continue to look at,” and we haven’t really circled back since.
To be fair, a lot has happened in the world at large since 2019. A shorter schedule was certainly not on the top of the NBA’s priority list. But now, it seems, it’s back on the table. That might be a good thing for everyone.
We’ll see where things go from here. Hopefully, whatever the solution is, we won’t have to have this conversation again. Because, man, it’s exhausting.