This NBA season has produced plenty of eye-popping box scores, but some of the most talked about stat lines recently have been the ones filled with zeroes and marked by a controversial note: Did Not Play-rest. On March 11, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr opted to keep his core players — Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala — out of his team’s marquee matchup with the San Antonio Spurs, citing a desire to protect his players’ health after Golden State’s 11,000 miles of travel over the preceding 13 days. One week later, the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tyronn Lue, held out LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love from the team’s own nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Those benchings apparently did not sit well with the NBA’s commissioner, Adam Silver, who sent team owners a memo saying that the coaching practice of resting healthy players is an “extremely significant issue” for the league. And Silver’s comments didn’t sit well with James: “I don’t understand why it’s become a problem now, because I sit out a couple games?” Read more https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nba-teams-are-resting-players-earlier-and-earlier/
