Mark Cuban is one of the most outspoken NBA governors, and he's given his thoughts again on a huge new NBA rule.
The NBA's new rule, which was approved by the team governors on Sept. 13, will fine teams for resting star players in certain circumstances as the league attempts to lessen the rest periods for stars during the regular season.
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Teams will be fined at least $100,000 for violating the policy, which includes resting more than one "star" player per game. Star players are defined as a player who has been an All-Star or on an All-NBA team in any of the previous three seasons.
NBA agent Nate Jones posted a tweet saying that load management — which is the term used to define the resting of players — is driven by front office decision makers and not the players.
NBA needs a huge culture shift. Fans don’t believe it, but actual all-star level players HATE the load management mandates. It comes from owner and GM level and is ubiquitous across the league now. It’s the culture of the quant focused ownership groups and front offices https://t.co/doECDWWbMJ
— Nate Jones (@JonesOnTheNBA) September 13, 2023
Cuban, who is the governor of the Dallas Mavericks, a team that has two players who qualify in Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, did not dispute Jones' claim, but wanted to "add a little context." He explained that the NBA is trying to cut down on teams playing games on back-to-back days, but it also cut down on longer breaks of three or more days which also has downsides.
"It also reduced or eliminated the number of three days or longer breaks a team had. Which was great for recovery for heavy minute players. It's impossible to get both," Cuban said.
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Sportico's Lev Akabas replied to Cuban to provide a little bit more context to the resting policy of the league.
Akabas illustrated that there has been a massive cutdown in back-to-backs in the NBA, but supported Cuban's thought about less instances of three or more rest days.
Akabas cited constraints such as the season's length, the recent addition of the Play-In Tournament, and the upcoming inclusion of an In-Season Tournament.
Some data: the NBA cut back-to-backs by ~35% from 2014-15 to 2019-20, but have hit the limit of what's feasible given the length of the season (play-in & in-season tourney added more constraints)
— Lev Akabas (@LevAkabas) September 15, 2023
In 2022-23, teams averaged 2.1 instances of 3+ days rest, versus 4.1 in 2013-14 pic.twitter.com/CFiubVAV9i
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