The Vice President for Basketball Operations of the NBA, Joe Dumars, attended the annual coaches meeting along with the thirty head coaches of the league. During the meeting, he presented the findings of a study that were met with mixed reactions from those in attendance.
Dumars introduced a new load management policy that has raised doubts among the league’s coaches. This policy is set to alter a long-standing practice in the league: resting players.
NBA coaches have doubts on NBA’s new load-management’ policy
Joe Dumars introduced a new load management policy which is being doubted by most of the NBA head coaches. Dumars backed the leagues’ decision to change the rules related to load management with newly gathered data. The new data showed that load management does not relate to a low risk of injuries for a player.
This was news to the 30 head coaches present at the meeting, as teams had employed data scientists and medical professionals to establish this relationship for years. He further added that the league wants to see players participate in as many games as possible for the benefit of fans and to uphold the integrity of the game. This decision has been met with mixed reactions, with some players and coaches criticizing the change while others support it to maintain the integrity of the game.
What is NBA’s new load management policy?
The new load management policy introduced by the NBA is also known as the player participation policy. Under this rule, a team is disallowed to rest multiple healthy stars in the same game. The teams are also supposed to make sure that their star players are available to compete in nationally televised games and in-season tournament matches.
Previously, there was a common practice of resting players for multiple matches throughout the 82-game regular season to prevent injuries. However, this new rule changes that, and mandates that the star player of each team must participate in a match if they are healthy enough to do so. There are some exceptions that allow certain players to rest. Non-compliance with the PPP carries significant fines that will likely incentivize teams to adhere to the new rule change.
What do you think of the new load management changes in the NBA? We are eager to hear your opinion, so drop down in the comments section and let us know.
