He's 37. If you look at it from a purely objective point of view, the risk of playing him extra minutes when we clearly don't have to clearly outweigh any perceived benefits. The extra entire quarter when compounded for similar 10-15 games this year add up.
Someone mentioned Duncan the other day and I looked this up and saw these numbers. That was a ridiculously smart move that Pops did and probably added a few years to Duncan's career. I don't know if Udoka will reduce a player's minutes, unfortunately. Every year I look at Rockets' minutes and I think that if we could just shave Fred's or X's minutes then they'd be fresher. But last year the minutes actually seemed fine and it's this year that is the problem. Alpi is third in avg minutes and KD is fifth in the NBA. Both of those numbers need to go down but I doubt we see it. The West is a bloodbath and to get a top 4 seed means we have to fight every game. We should alternate Sengun and KD more to give them rest. Maybe it depends on more scoring from Amen or Jabari or someone else. And I agree that a big leads mean they sit and rest (and avoid the risk).
If this is true, about Alpi and KD, then they definitely need to come down. We are too deep to ride our stars harder than other teams are riding theirs. But I wonder if there’s some other reason at work like is mentioned above. KD also seems to be enjoying himself so much I really also wonder if he’s not calling the shots a little. I assume Ime is letting him have some say in his minutes.
Fortunately his usage rate is at his career low. It would be nice to keep him at ~30 mpg and hopefully when DFS is back that will start to happen.
Blowing big leads is a recipe for inflated KD minutes throughout the season.. It's more on the 2nd unit to not have leads go from 20 to 10 in 3 damn minutes..
