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The National Basketball Association (NBA) plans to give teams more leeway this season when it comes to resting players in non-national televised games, according to an ESPN report.
A league memo obtained by the network said the relaxed restrictions would apply to teams participating in back-to-back games, as well as other scenarios “to rest a key veteran player who played a substantial role in a team that advanced deeply in the 2020 Playoffs, or to rest a player who is still regaining full strength after recovering from COVID-19. “
Charge management has been a sore subject in the NBA for the past few years, but this year it’s unusual because stars like LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Jimmy Butler competed in the NBA Finals until mid-October. The league is scheduled to restart before Christmas, marking the shortest offseason in its history.
James said this week that he and the Lakers will be careful with their workload in the early part of the regular season.
“I’ve always listened to my coaches,” James said last season. “We had the same thing last year. Let’s be as smart as we can… making sure my body, making sure I’m ready to go.
“Obviously, all games are important, but we are competing for something high. We never want to put our things aside. For me personally, that’s a fine line for me, but I understand that it’s a shorter season. I think it will be 71 days that the low season will be the shortest [offseason] for any professional sport.
“We are very aware of what we are going to do in the future, as far as I am personally concerned.”
The league’s memorandum states that factors that qualify for “unusual circumstances” include age, injury history, COVID-19 recovery, season, and career workload for a particular player. Schedule concerns could also play a role, such as how much a team has played recently and how many consecutive road games it has endured.
The memo reinforced the rules involving nationally televised games, emphasizing that teams that rest healthy players could be fined $ 100,000 or more. – Reuters
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