Absolutely. The same goes for Bev. I believe that the Rockets could win this game easily if they wanted to expend the effort. Personally I would prefer that they did not.
In my opinion, 48 hours is the right amount of time to get some additional bounce back, or heal a soft injury. Anything more than that and I think you get a little rust. Problem is, Dwight needs some time with the Starters. So I wouldn't do it. Dwight and Asik will be switching roles and need some adjustment time.
Older players need to take games off and rest. Our guys DEFINITELY need rest... but in the form of meaningfully reduced minutes in the upcoming games. This keeps them in rhythm while also providing rest. Ideally, limit them to something like 25 minutes... which still seems like a lot, but consider Harden and Parsons both still played 31 minutes last night.
Harden and Parsons are young. And realistically NBA iron men. You are right that 25 minutes constitutes rest for them.
I hear where you're coming from, but how much of the inconsistency is due to logging heavy minutes (by NBA standards)? How much of it is due to key players being out for stretches? Harden has picked up his defensive intensity for most of this season (by his standards) and now we see him reverting again somewhat. A lot of that is due to being tired--but some of it is due to lack of focus--i.e. mental fatigue. The NBA season is nothing if not terribly long and grueling to the mind/body. Some players adjust easier than others. Let's remember this is only Harden's 2nd and Parsons's 3rd full season playing starter's minutes. To your point, it's hard to say just how much time is left to "evolve together" at this stage. We are who we are. Our offensive execution of late has been impressive, and yet our defensive execution has been rather atrocious. A lot of that is due to both Bev and Howard being out (increased pace?) This automatically makes our bench production weaker, as evidenced when Asik (now starting) goes to the bench. (Who's stepping in to patrol the paint? Exactly.) Our inconsistency, IMO, is a function of youth and early stage cohesion (it's our first year integrating Dwight into our system). That said, we're well ahead of the learning curve, although not quite fully developed. A few extra games with our starters logging heavy minutes isn't going to change our postseason outcome. OTOH, rest and optimal health will go a long way. (assuming we clinch the 4th seed in the next few games)
Isn't there a rule against "resting" non-injured players now? Or were they just discussing that? I thought even talking about it drew fines as of late. (I'm not saying I'm against it, as long as the players don't get rusty...)
Only when the NBA isn't given sufficient notice. As long as notice is given enough time in advance, not much they can do. And the NBA rarely does anything when players are rested this late in the season.
This is terrible news for a 26 year old Rockets fan that's been a fan for 20 years and is going to his first game ever tonight.
We don't need any rest unless someone is dealing with a nagging but small injury. These players are young. Building momentum for the playoffs is very essential and important for this young team.
Don't rest anyone until we've clinched HCA. Maybe the last game or two. Bev and Howard need to play a few games before the playoffs as well. We need a couple of games with the full lineup to get our rhythm back and adjust to having Howard and Beverley back in the lineup. I don't want to go into the playoffs with the Bev/Harden/Parsons/Jones/Howard lineup playing their first games together for the first time in a month.
I will. This no time to rest anyone. Portland can easily win out. If we lose to denver tonight then we have to go .500 the rest of the way. Yeah it looks easy on paper but if we lose to San Antonio then we have to win two out of the other three. Do you really want that pressure going into the end of the season. If McHale rest players and we lose tonight I want him fired. Rest players after we clinch. Clinch and bring up Covington and whoever and rest everyone. But clinch it first and clinch it now.
One win today and the Rockets would have clinched the 4th seed. I think the Rockets should look to win today's game, then give the starters limited minutes in their last 3 games. Give the starters plenty of rest but not rest them entirely because we don't want them to lose rhythm.
