NBA Governors reportedly approve policy prohibiting teams from resting 2 star players
The NBA Board of Governors has reportedly approved the policy limiting teams from resting two All-Star players. The Athletic's Shams Charania reported about the issue first.
"NBA Board of Governors has approved new policy that a team is unable to rest two star players in the same game moving forward, multiple sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. A star is defined as someone who has made All-Star or All-NBA team in the past three seasons," wrote Charania.
Load management in the league has become a significant issue over the last few seasons. Teams rested all their key players, especially toward the end of the season or on back-to-backs, which impacted viewership and revenues. Fans of the sport will be more excited than anyone to learn about this, especially the ones who frequently go to the arena to see their teams in action.
Meanwhile, this also keeps the competition alive during the regular season. The league seems to have taken several steps to ensure fans have enough to look forward to before the business end of the tournament kicks by also announcing an NBA In-Season tournament, a rendition of European soccer's Champions League competition.
Looking at teams that will have to implement the NBA's new policy
The league defines a star player as someone who has been an All-Star or All-NBA player over the last three seasons. There are 15 teams in the league currently with at least two star players by this definition.
Those include the Celtics, 76ers, Warriors, Clippers, Lakers, Suns, Kings, Grizzlies, Bulls, Cavaliers, Bucks, Hawks, Heat, Timberwolves and Mavericks. The most likely teams impacted by this policy are Clippers, Lakers and Heat.
The Clippers have two of the most injury-prone stars in the NBA, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Both players have been rested on back-to-backs frequently, owing to their injury-related concerns over the last few years,
The Clippers have been cautious with the two All-Star wings, but they will have to manage their workload moving forward. The same goes for the Lakers with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. They have a deep roster this time, but that doesn't give them the leeway to rest both their stars on the same night.
The Heat relied on resting their star player nearly as much as the Clippers, with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, but they will have to assess the situation closely, too.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the teams will be issued fines of up to $1 million if repeatedly found guilty of breaching this policy.
"Under new rules, teams would be fined $100K for a first violation, $250K for a second violation and $1 million more than the previous penalty for each additional violation, sources tell ESPN," wrote Wojnarowski.
Teams must ensure players are available for nationally televised and In-Season tournament games. They also have to ensure that players resting should be on the bench during the game.