Over recent years and specifically during this most recent campaign, player rest has arisen as one of the more hot button issues in the NBA. We’ve seen teams have stretches of playing 4 games in 5 nights and also plenty of back-to-back contests which has resulted in more players being rested for non-injury related purposes.
Some of these occurrences took place during prime time or nationally-televised games and it was usually a strategy reserved for teams’ star players, making contests one-sided. NBA commissioner Adam Silver already made it clear earlier this summer that he expected rule changes to be made in regards to resting players and earlier this week, the league sent out a memo to all 30 teams on the topic. The NBA revealed their plans to eliminate 4 games in 5 nights and also reduce back-to-backs and single game road trips among other rule changes, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst:
In a memo given to teams this week, the league outlined how it hopes to reduce the stresses of travel and give players a chance to recover more than in the past. This is a proactive measure aimed at both player safety and to reduce the number of games in which teams rest healthy players…
Some of the new improvements include:
• Eliminating stretches of four games in five days and 18 games in 30 days.
• Reduction of five games in seven nights to just 40 instances across (1.3 per team), down from last year when it was on the schedule 90 times (three per team).
• Reduction in number of back-to-backs to 14.9 per team, down from 16.3 per team. In all, 40 back-to-backs have been eliminated from last season.
• Reduction of single-game road trips by 17 percent.
• Reduction in single-game road trips over 2,000 miles by 67 percent; there are only 11 of them on schedule.
• Increase in weekend games from 549 to 568, much of the boost coming on Saturdays. Previously the NBA avoided Saturdays and Sunday afternoons during football season to dodge conflicts.
Since Silver took over the NBA reigns from David Stern, he has done a phenomenal job being progressive and moving the game forward as it evolves. These modifications are a good step towards ensuring stars are available and fresh for all regular season games.
With the regular season starting earlier than usual in mid-October this season, this year was ideal for these amendments. Hopefully, with these changes, we see a drop in the amount of teams who feel inclined to rest their core players in fear of wearing them out.
