Adam Silver And The NBA May Have Finally Found A Way To Stop Load Management

David Dow. Getty Images.

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Alright, now we're talking! 

If there's one thing that I think almost all NBA and basketball fans can agree on no matter who your favorite team is, it's the fact that load management sucks. Gone are the days when you could go to a game and be certain the stars would be active. If someone was coming to your city (maybe for the only time that year) so you buy tickets only to see the star is a scratched for "rest" and yet nobody is lining up to refund your money, that's a bummer. The league tried to instill some sort of penalty for teams who sat their stars on national TV games, but I feel like that lasted for about two seconds. When is the last time we saw a team get fined for that despite all the load management that happens across the league?

So any sort of idea that could help solve this issue is something I am in favor of. Do I think this is going to work? Of course not. Someone will have a "non-covid illness" or something. Or knee soreness. As always when this stuff comes out, the only thing I care about is what the penalty will be if you violate it. Money? Maybe some picks or something?

yeah, this isn't going to change anyone's mind. Last time I checked, owners are billionaires. If you are in charge of a title contending team, are you going to maybe risk any sort of injury all because of a fine? Probably not. Steve Ballmer isn't going to push the health of Paul George and Kawhi during the regular season if all he has to do is cut the league a check. He has infinite money whereas that duo only has a limited amount of time together to reach the top of the mountain. 

But if this is enough to get the stars active and playing more than 50ish games a year, we all win as fans. I do love how the league determines what a "star" is though. I feel like that's now going to be used in contract negotiations. Oh you want big money because you feel like you're a star? Sorry according to the league classification, all we can offer you is the MLE. I'm sure that'll go over well. What about the guys who maybe aren't really of that level but then made it because someone was hurt? Now they can't load manage either if the team wants to rest their main star. Again, a win for the fans but probably pretty annoying for the teams.

Where I do think we'll see this have the biggest impact isn't just those random January games, but the end of the season as well. Usually, NBA teams punt on the regular season once we hit around mid March. With these new rules, I'm not so sure you'll be able to do that in the same way. Unless the league comes out with a way to limit fake injuries of course. So if you're also telling me I'll get real basketball in late March that will have main guys actually play, I'm in.

I still think it's a long shot anything truly changes, but one can hope. Load management stinks

Unless you're a frontcourt member of the Boston Celtics. Then I would very much like you to rest as much as you'd like. Thank you.