MILWAUKEE — As the load management conversation rages on throughout the NBA, one man is usually regarded as the face of the movement: Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich.
The longtime San Antonio Spurs head coach famously sat Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green for a nationally televised game against Miami at the end of a long trip in November of 2012. The decision drew the ire of then-NBA commissioner David Stern, who levied a $250,000 dollar fine against the Spurs.
Popovich’s move changed the game. Nearly 13 years later, it continues to alter how it is played and coached on a nightly basis.
“He was definitely a pioneer in that regard,” Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said prior to Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. “And he was coaching a team that was making deep playoff runs, almost every year. And he recognized the toll on these guys as the game was speeding up. So I think Pop definitely kind of popularized the idea of the rest and the benefits.”
Kerr, who played for Popovich in San Antonio at the end of his career and has a strong relationship with his former coach, was asked about load management in the context of a prominent former teammate criticizing the concept. Michael Jordan, regarded by many as the greatest player who has ever played, said in a recent NBC interview that load management “shouldn’t be needed.”
Kerr understands his former Bulls teammate’s perspective, but doesn’t agree with it, given years of scientific data that shows players regularly play better when given more rest between games. Kerr noted that the game is much faster than it was back in his playing days in the 1990s and early 2000s, which adds more wear and tear on players. Kerr and his coaching staff also have more associates who can access data that wasn’t available during his career.
The Warriors’ Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Stephen Curry help comprise on of the oldest teams in the NBA.
“For us, four of our top guys are 35-39,” Kerr said, referring to Warriors stars Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler and Al Horford. “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.”
Kerr’s remarks came after he was asked about the differences in playing defense in this era of the league. In his answer, he noted that the 82-game schedule played a role in how teams operate and what is asked of players. As Kerr has noted several times this season, teams play less often on back-to-back nights, instead using an every-other-night structure.
“This will be our sixth game in 10 games in four cities. Next 10, I think eight of them are on the road. When all is said and done, of our first 15 games, I think they’ll come in 26 days in 10 different cities,” Kerr said. ” To ask our players to sprint, either full court pressure, either dealing with it, or applying it, racing out to the 3-point line, covering 3-point shooters and then playing at this tempo is dramatically different from what it was 20 years ago.”
Kerr knows the people hurt most by load management are the fans who pay money to see the top stars play each night. The veteran coach believes the solution to the problem is to cut some games off the 82-game schedule, a view shared by Cleveland Cavaliers coach (and former Kerr assistant) Kenny Atkinson, who recently advocated for a 72-game season. But Kerr realistic enough to know that likely won’t happen.
Still, the toll of deciding to sit Curry on some nights for rest weighs on him.
“The tricky part is obvious,” Kerr said. “We’ve had a lot of games here over the years — not here in Milwaukee but here in Golden State — where we have a really rough trip. And we sit Steph, and I get an email, (Warriors senior vice president of communications) Raymond (Ridder) gets an email from a fan, and he says ‘I just spent $2,000 dollars on a trip here and tickets and plane ride and hotel and Steph doesn’t play.’
“We genuinely feel terrible about that. We want our fans to be able to enjoy watching Steph play. And so the only real answer — we all know what the real answer is, and that is to shorten the season. Good luck.”
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