Ime is playing with fire here. Need to get Durant out when we have a comfortable lead. This franchise is no stranger to injuries and stars being played heavy minutes
On one hand it's way too many. On the other hand he's not nearly exerting as much energy or effort as he's done in the past. I would still prefer he play less minutes regardless.
Durant is averaging about 35 mpg. That’s less than what he averaged the prior two seasons. What do you want him to average? 33? You really think that’ll make a massive difference?
Calm down. It's the beginning of the season and KD needs to integrate with everyone. Also, the Rockets have only played 11 games in 3 1/2 weeks. He's gonna get some "load management" days off and his minutes will decrease when DFS starts playing.
Minutes are important but majority of the games we played were not a close games and KD wasn’t trying much by 4th quarter. If we were playing games that were close games he might put more stress on his body but so far he was putting cardio by the 4th
Maybe 25% of his minutes is just standing there as a gravity load, opening up the floor for the other 4 Rockets players. He's not tasked to defend the best or even the 2nd or 3rd best player on D. He's not tasked to run the offense constantly. With Sengun, Amen, and now even Reed starting to run the play, his usage rate is probably the lowest it's ever been in his career. So his box score minutes are a bit misleading - a good chunk of that is essentially "active rest" where he's being a decoy that warps defenses and helps the other 4 players operate, all while preserving his body.
I think he should be averaging under 30, personally. Put him in bubble wrap for the playoffs Edit: Pop knew what to do when he had a late-30s superstar
This was a cup game and we needed to make up the 11 point loss to Spurs. But also, we are still building chemistry. Can’t take anything for granted. Rest him later in the year when we have big leads.
Just keep a 20 point lead going into the 4th and he can rest. Ime played the starters later than usual tonight because of the point differential and Portland can put up points quick.
I think we need to keep his minutes average at 32-33 mins to give him the best chance to stay healthy in the postseason.
We were up 25 with 7 minutes left and he was still out there. Sit him down, it’s not just the minutes it’s the injury risk.
we've had a schedule filled with rest days and no back to backs. he needs minutes in his body. it's like the nba designed our schedule specifically to get him enough rest while getting fully acclimated.
He should be sitting more in these blowouts. Maybe he will when DFS gets back, but I don’t get why he played a minute in last night’s 4th quarter.
