I donāt particularly like load management, but I donāt hate it either. It has clearly worked. And itās a decision that has to be approved by ownership who are writing the checks. They know whatās at stake. Theyāll take the hit with player salaries because they stand to make so much more if the team wins a championship (i.e. merchandising, ads, TV contracts, season ticket sales etc). If a team is bad, their best player isnāt getting the green light to sit out (unless itās like Kobeās retirement tour or something).
Additionally, I donāt like the league fining teams for load management because it shouldnāt be valuing some players over others. When a completely healthy non-star player rides the bench for seven straight DNP-Coachās decision, no one sheds a tear (and rightly so). If ownership wants to shoulder the burden of resting players in both dollars and fan goodwill, thatās on them. That said, the idea of the league trying to dictate who plays doesnāt sit well with me because it isnāt applied indiscriminately, and it should if this happens at all. What we may see is players like Kawhi Leonard suiting up for games then never checking in. Then what do you do?
Resting players extends their careers. You have to weigh whether itās worth a player missing fifteen to twenty games a season if it means they may play four or five
more seasons. Manu Ginobili was 39 when this happened:
For BNMbroodwars brought up Stockton, Malone, Jordan and Barkley. Stockton is an edge case. Malone may have a championship ring if he had some DNP-rest for some games in his lone Lakers season. Jordan sat out almost two seasons. Barkleyās body broke down so he is one of the worst examples. I was a huge Barkley fan back in the day. He talked about retiring when he was on the Suns.