do you agree that fatigue thruout the course of an 82 game season carries over the the playoffs? do you agree with pop's philosophy of resting players in the season to ensure freshness, readiness for others to step up, and highest chance of success in the playofffs?
Yes, fatigue is a factor but not the only one which your argument seems to imply. Freshness does not give you the highest chance, it's your readiness and getting #1 seed. How can we get ready for a team that as you mentioned, we need to play perfect. The only way we get the new and old players to gel together is with playing time on real games. How can we achieve that when you are limited to a strict diet of minutes and having the #1 seed?
Rest is important but sometimes I feel this forum goes a bit overboard with it. Like we want to put everyone in bubble wrap. Harden and Paul are hoopers. They want to play and get a lather. I am all for lessening minutes and even for staggering some rest games on back to backs with key players. Don't get me wrong. But also, this team wants to stay in a rhythm. This team isn't the spurs or the warriors that have been together in the playoffs for many years in the trenches. They need time to gel with their defensive rotations and working in all of the new parts to be a well oiled machine by the time the playoffs role around. Rest is important, but lets not go overboard.
MDA is definitely doing much better at keeping players healthy. Ariza would have come back in the old days but now MDA is keeping him out until after all start break. As a fan, I probably will worry about CP3's lingering groin problem, EG has health issues here and there, Ryno same, PJ plays too much games etc... But I am pretty sure the coaching/training staff are on top of those things as well.
I'm with OP in this sense . If you were to rank our talent and depth league wide ... And our coaching league wide ... The talent and depth would now for sure be higher . It's up to MDA to use the talent we have . Part of using that depth is using it to keep our best players fresh . There is a scenario out there , where we push for regular season wins at the expense of post season success . This must be avoided . It's not an outlandish claim , because our same coach took that path last year ... He didn't rest harden down the stretch and instead prioritized winning / helping James try to get MVP . We have an even better chance at playoff success this year , but it is dependent on guys being 100 percent . Something you can do to help guys get that extra pep in their step is give them entire games off and limit minutes . I would strongly question MDA's decision making if he chose not to rest guys this year ... ESPECIALLY Given how deep we are now . This means that it's not even guaranteed we are sacrificing regular season wins .
We were also blowing them out by 36 . If it was a 20 point game does he still give the garbage squad a chance to close it out ? Or does he keep Paul/ James in until the 5 minute mark ... History says #2 . Maybe with JJ now he will be more confident
Sorry but no, it was a different situation. the majority of the Spurs were old and not in their prime when Pop did it/does it. People think it is a winning formula and they should follow it just because the Spurs do it. If a bottom team did it, no one would take notice. The teams now get rest before the Playoffs anyway, so the rest now isn't going to effect players in any way towards the Championship goal. the only time Paul and Harden will be rested is when the Playoff position is decided. The coaching staff know what they are doing.
Ariza cp3 tucker + We are a 3pt shooting adn driving team Our 3s going in at a decent rate and how aggresive we are in driving to the paint is the difference between winning and losing games Fresh legs=3s going in, agressive driving
The truth of the matter is this, the Rocket's play a low-energy-spending offense and defense. Our spreading the floor and standing still in a spot keeps the legs fresh on offense (not much cutting and slashing wearing ourselves out) Our switching everything on defense and taking turns guarding everybody puts no one player in position to get tired chasing anyone thru picks, and taking turns against post ups (even if one of our guards get caught on a big man) keeps our players from getting worn down, like last year when Harden was playing the 4 on defense when Nene went down. (Funny how no one in the media seems to remember that about game 6).
