NBA players/coaches aren’t going to agree with every take that’s made public.
While Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr understood what his former Chicago Bulls teammate, Michael Jordan, was getting at when he criticized franchises for implementing load management (he believes that if players can play, they should rather than rest), he couldn’t bring himself to agree with the Hall of Fame guard.
“For us (Warriors), four of our top guys are 35-39,” Kerr told the Athletic’s Nick Friedell Thursday. “We now have performance teams. When I played with the Bulls, we had one trainer and one weight coach. And now we have reams of data (from) our performance team, which is comprised of 10 people or so.”
“They’re advising me when our guys are more vulnerable to injury. I believe in this stuff. I believe in the science, and I believe in having players healthy for the playoffs. And if you can try to get there, and it means resting guys along the way, then I’m all for doing so because that’s what counts come playoff time.”
“ I don’t think there’s any exact data that can predict every injury, but I do think that there are patterns that we can see, that the experts can see, that can help us navigate through the season.”
Essentially, Kerr is insinuating that the Warriors’ most valuable players are old and bound to miss several regular-season games throughout the year.
With the Warriors’ long-term goal being to win a championship, it would be wise for the franchise to give its best players ample rest to ensure they are fresh for the postseason.
When Jimmy Butler, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Al Horford were still in their primes, there was more of an argument for them to compete in most, if not all, of their respective organizations' clashes.
However, as NBA players age, it typically takes them a bit longer to recover from injuries, and the last thing the Dubs want is for a game-changing starter/role player to suffer a late-regular-season setback that could negatively affect their playoff status.
Simply put, Kerr has the right idea when it comes to load management in the NBA.
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