At some point, this is what needs to happen, if fully healthy and unfatigued rosters going into the playoffs is the ultimate goal. The commish needs to step in. Greatly reduce the regular season and just get to the playoffs. No more back to backs. Too many financial incentives though to have a long regualr season. I can't imagine teams would be on board for that. These guys are paid millions of dollars to play basketball and win basketball games. Coaches are hired to do the same thing and get in hot water when the losses pile up in the regular season. The incentives are out of whack, for the coach especially. The problem is we're now in a state where trying hard to win the 82 games before the playoffs is seen as a negative. But, what are the players being paid for, if not to play basketball and win basketball games? Its not a legitimate league anymore if during the regular season the teams are not trying hard to win. Even as a fan, I tune in to watch the Bulls win during the regular season. Minutes limits and taking games off of course sucks. I go to 30+ games a year, so its not a huge deal for me, but if I only went to 1 game and the guys didn't play or the Bulls lost because DRose is only allowed to play 28 minutes, well, that's a problem. What's the point of 82 games anymore? Just have a few warmup games and start the playoffs. That's the best way to prevent overuse. All the stuff that Thibs preached about overcoming adversity together and learning to trust your fellow teammate in the heat of battle does matter too, but perhaps that could be accomplished in 15 games with strictly managed minutes and the coach is not really evaluated by the wins in losses in those games.
I don't happen to think anyone can be considered to be a "great coach" in 5 seasons. If you haven't won a championship, much less made it to the finals, ascribing greatness strikes me as ridiculous. An ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL element to being a great NBA head coach is staying power. I think Doug Collins can coach hell out of a basketball game. PJax can't hold Doug's jock when it comes to Xs and Os. But Collins wears on players nerves and his uber-intensity eventually causes players to tune out. Doug Collins is a brilliant basketball coach, but he's not a great NBA basketball coach IMO. "All time great regular season coach?" Really? No one other than maybe you give a shit about being a great regular season NBA head coach.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-bulls-just-fired-one-of-the-best-coaches-in-nba-history/ The Bulls Just Fired One Of The Best Coaches In The NBA 5 years is a good staying power in one location for a head coach. And we all agree he'll head coach again. Its also interesting how Team USA and the Celtics have little bad to say about Thibs. Just Paxson, who choked out the coach before Thibs. He has a history of not getting along with head coaches. And in 13 years of cashing checks, he has a history of not doing much of note without Thibs. You are posting about how the Bulls are going to be taking a step back next season. You'll say its for other reasons, but its curious you are already banging that drum.
Why not 20 games for the regular season, other than revenue? Its a tune up for the playoffs and only really an opportunity for guys to get injured / overused / fatigued. Wins and losses don't really matter and if you work too hard to get those wins its something to be criticized for.
You guys want an example of how injuries have ruined the NBA? Remember how people used to say point guard was the deepest position? Check out this list of the top point guards in 2011, as ranked by Bleacher Report. The majority of young, explosive point guards from 2011 have had their careers derailed by injuries, including Rose, Williams, Rondo, Westbrook and Jennings. Only Tony Parker and John Wall have made it through relatively unscathed. And John Wall is still early in his career. These types of stats suggest that it wouldn't be the worst decision for Washington to consider moving him. 1. Derrick Rose - Career derailed by injuries 2. Chris Paul - Still killing it, but not an explosive athlete 3. Deron Williams - Career derailed by injuries 4. Rajon Rondo - Career derailed by injuries 5. Russell Westbrook - Career derailed by injuries 6. Steve Nash - Retired 7. Tony Parker - Has remained healthy but usually misses about 15-20 games a season 8. Raymond Felton - Has struggled, probably not primarily injury related 9. Jayson Kidd - Retired 10. John Wall - Has had two injury-plagued seasons out of five but appears to be getting stronger. 11. Brandon Jennings - Recovering from a ruptured Achilles 12. Stephen Curry - healthy after struggling with injuries early in his career, but not an explosive athlete 13. Tyreke Evans - has for the most part been healthy, but not an explosive athlete 14. Devin Harris - Career winding down 15. Andre Miller - Career winding down What happened to the young explosive point guards that were supposed to rule the NBA? They all got injured.
Cancel the NBA. Nobody will get hurt. I don't get why you had to include guys who didn't get hurt in your list. How about a list of centers? Noah missed tons of games before Thibs was even coach. Greg Oden. Keep going and you'll have a list just as long. There are 450 players, roughly, in the league in a season. Not the same 450 this season and last.
And they are all multi-millionaires. Well, at least the ones smart enough to hang on to their money. What's the solution though? Jen Swanson and wearable tech is one thing, but the Bulls used Jen Swanson this season and still had a gimpy Noah and absent Gasol when it mattered and the Cavs are using wearable tech and we see how these finals are going. (they still at least got to the finals though) But how can you have 82 regular season games that are supposed to be hard fought and are supposed to matter and not have the players and coaches try hard to win them? At some point, the athletes and coaches that are being paid millions of dollars to play basketball at a high level and win are going to want to play basketball at a high level against each other and try to win NBA basketball games.. And that's what the consumers of the product want to see too. As a fan of the NBA the dog days of January and February are hard enough to get through as it is. I still make the trek down to the United Center though to watch the games. But, if the franchisees involved get even further along down the road of not trying to win the games anymore or half-assing it even more than they already do, what's the point?
More centers: Dwight Howard Anderson Varajao Al Horford (had seasons of 11 and 29 games in the last 4 seasons) Brook Lopez (seasons of 5 and 17 in the past 4 seasons) Tyson Chandler (62, 66, 55 games in the past 4 seasons) Greg Munro (69 games this season) Andrew Bogut (historically injured, only played 67 games this season in spite of Kerr) etc. And then there's the DeAndre Jordan types who play 35 and 34 minutes/game the past two seasons and never miss a game over the past four. I left out the "explosive athlete" bit because those guys get blood and guts all over the place when they explode.
I didn't even think about Kyrie. He's not exactly a high flyer but he's another of the young exciting point guards whose career was derailed by injuries. I'm not a huge NFL fan but I've heard about how some teams refuse to pick running backs -- even brilliant ones -- in the first round with the thought being that they're just going to be injured and out of the league in less than a handful of seasons. My solutions: 1) Hire away a trainer from the Spurs at any price -- I'd pay over five million to snag one of them and steal their intel. 2) Not trade for John Wall because it looks like an almost certainty that he's going to blow out his ACL this season.
You could also add Shaun Livingston to the list, along with Kyrie. That guy would have been a starting caliber point guard had he not destroyed his knee.
Kawhi Leonard missed 18 games this season. Parker 14. Belinelli 20. Spiltter 30. Mills 31. Picture of health? Really?
I'm pretty sure he'll enjoy the generational wealth that playing under Thibs netted him. Maybe he's like Lebron and doesn't get injured a lot. I guess we'll see. He could have saved himself and only played 15 minutes a game. Healthier perhaps, just not league wide recognition or huge payday. Or he could have totally saved himself and be an insurance salesman. Very little risk of injury there.
This is truth. People have been complaining in the last few years that NFL players have grown into these scary hybrids of fast and big, and that, combined with a history of life-altering (and ending) head injuries, has forced that league to alter its approach to player health. When they started making rules adjustments though, the purists howled. And as the Association begins to respond to its own injury issues, expect much the same. There's only so much the league can do: eliminate or minimize back to backs, stretch out the roster, lengthen the all-star breaks -- and that's why teams are making their own moves to sit players and or limit their minutes to keep them healthy. Pops was right to rest his players the way he did. What he did wrong was flaunt it -- sending three home. Note that other teams have done the same without sending their players home, and with no fines.
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bulls/post/_/id/10118/hinrich-injury-underscores-bulls-vulnerability But at some point in the first half Hinrich tweaked his right groin and the reality of the Bulls’ situation struck home once more. They are banking on a group of veterans, led by Hinrich, who have dealt with serious injuries throughout the last two seasons. While there's no telling yet whether or not this Hinrich injury is serious, it shined a spotlight on the biggest problem with the current roster. The depth that has been the Bulls' biggest attribute over the past two years is gone. The starters are all good, but if one of those players goes down Tom Thibodeau's bunch is in trouble. No longer can the Bulls count on C.J. Watson or John Lucas to spell Rose. If Hinrich goes down, Thibodeau must turn to Nate Robinson, Marquis Teague or Marko Jaric. Robinson, sporadic as he may be, is still the best option considering the 19-year-old Teague looks like a JV player trying to stick with the varsity and Jaric has barely played since training camp started. ... "I'd rather play a game than practice," Deng said. "We didn't have practice today so we used this as, we need it. They got a lot of guys returning so they want to rest guys, we need to use different lineups and it's different. I think the more games we play right now that don't count is what we need because we know where we want to get to." But where can the Bulls get to with a veteran-laden bunch that is going to be counted on, at least in the beginning, to play heavy minutes? What can the Bulls do to at least attempt to stay healthy? "Preventative exercises, ice, What else can you do?" Noah said. "Lift weights, cold tank, compression tights, sleep, no alcohol, good food, no McDonald's. If you do that, then you're putting yourself in a better situation, you'll have a better chance of not getting injured. Obviously anything can happen, but hopefully the basketball gods are on our side." That's the problem for the Bulls as they start this season. The team is counting on faith and hope that everything will be fine, when recent history and the reality of an 82-game schedule usually tells veteran players otherwise. (But management never saw it, or something like that)
Not according to the people that run the NBA. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8695865/nba-fines-san-antonio-spurs-250000-sitting-players
Exactly what I said, except it wasn't three players, it was five. Can you find another example of an organization being fined for resting players? I'll wait.
