The opening weeks of the NBA season are a fascinating look at not necessarily the present for NBA teams, but what’s coming in the future. The goal for many teams is not to necessarily play well now, but to put in the work necessary to play well when it matters.
It’s a fine balance between winning the games necessary to make the postseason and feel you’re prepared for the next-level grind of said 7-game series. For teams like the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, this is much easier said than done. Both squads have played more basketball than any others over the last three seasons, and all those minutes take their toll. Finding ways to compensate for all that playing time can be difficult.
For Warriors coach Steve Kerr, the goal is not to have players miss games altogether, but manage their minute when possible. Kerr spoke as part of a San Jose Mercury News piece about Golden States’ complex minutes situation and provided some insight into how the Dubs handle their stars and their request for playing time.
The basic plan is, as follows: each player gets a “projected max” or 36 to 38 minutes per game when the score is close, but goes down to 32 to 34 minutes in blowouts. The team also tries to keep two stars on the floor at all times, but gives each star player five to six minutes of rest each half at different points.
“It’s hard to really quantify how that works out,” Kerr said. “But we know we’re in a nine-month grind if we make it to the Finals. Three years in a row in doing that, those minutes add up.”
The players in Golden State have clearly bought into this, and they said it’s a quantifiable difference they can feel in the postseason. Curry said those minutes of rest he gets in the regular season amount to playing about seven games less, which is a huge impact. And while Klay Thompson said he could totally play 48 minutes a night, and Kevin Durant may still want a lot of minutes, they both know this is for the best.
“Every player wants to be Superman and play every minute,” Durant said in the piece, but after a season in Golden State he knows the score when it comes to minutes.
“When you win, it doesn’t really matter,” Durant said. “You can feel how fresh you are coming down the stretch of the season and in the playoffs when you don’t have to have that wear and tear every night. I didn’t realize that. I just wanted to play.”
Basically, the Warriors don’t need to worry about getting fined for resting players because they’ve already figured out a way to do it. Gradually, a few minutes at a time. It’s nothing new for any NBA team, but it’s fascinating to look at how the Warriors balance it all out with the best team in the league.
