The NBA enacted a new player participation policy during the summer, but it hasn’t been effective in keeping stars on the court during the first week of the season, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Many of the league’s top players have already sat out games, either for rest purposes or minor injuries.
Vardon points to Sixers center Joel Embiid, who was nearly rested for the team’s home opener on Sunday. It was only the third game of the season, but Embiid played 35 minutes Saturday at Toronto, so coach Nick Nurse considered giving him the night off. Because it was a back-to-back situation, that wouldn’t have violated the new policy.
“There’s nothing injury-wise. We just played last night, traveled and all that stuff,” Nurse explained.
NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars has talked about wanting to re-establish the culture of an 82-game season, but Vardon notes that James Harden, Jimmy Butler, Devin Booker and Donovan Mitchell are among the players who have already missed games.
However, the policy is at least making teams think twice about keeping their best players out of action. Nurse admits it factored into his decision making when he opted to play Embiid on Sunday, and a source tells Vardon that the Heat checked with the league office before resting Butler in Saturday’s game.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Cooper Flagg, who is expected to be the top pick in the 2025 NBA draft, has announced that he will play college basketball at Duke, per Jeff Borzello of ESPN. The 16-year-old high school star revealed his choice in a commitment video, choosing the Blue Devils over Connecticut. Flagg opted to reclassify in August and will head to college next fall. “After I got on campus, I really started to envision myself in Durham,” Flagg said in his video. “All the love I felt made me really excited, seeing all the Crazies and the atmosphere in Cameron. I’m honored that I have the opportunity to join the Brotherhood.”
- NBA executives chose Mavericks guard Luka Doncic as the league’s best player under 25 years old, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Doncic narrowly edged Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama for the honor, with one executive calling him “an elite offense all by himself.” Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, Grizzlies guard Ja Morant and Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley rounded out the top five.
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report grades this year’s rookie scale extensions, which had to be finalized by last Monday, based on their benefit to both the players and their teams.
Seriously, UConn wins it all, has a solid pro Center prospect, has a great chance to repeat, plays in a Bball only league with Villanova, you get the Big East Tourney in NYC and you choose Duke?
Not to mention that Duke is probably the odd man out when the conferences realign, No more Duke v. Carolina. But he will be in the pros by then.
The problem with the new policy is that it requires the proper case by case handling by the league and the league has clearly shown they are incapable of being fair and balanced. Let’s just look at last year with tanking. The Blazers went out of their way for a second straight season to barely play starters and tank as much as possible. The Mavs tank for a week and they end up investigated not the Blazers.
My idea is one that will never happen because it actually punishes teams and costs them money. If you rest a star player or a bunch of star players then I think anyone who bought a ticket to the game should get money back so their ticket is equal to the lowest price for the season. If the Hornets are coming to Cleveland ticket costs will be low. If the Lakers come of course they will be higher. If the Lakers come and AD and Lebron don’t have a long term injury and don’t play the Lakers should have to pay those fans the difference. Something like this is the only true and fair incentive across the board.
Ooh, I like this! It’ll never happen, of course…
Due to the whole structure of the league this will be hard to get passed the board of governors…
Even if the NBA framed it as a fine to the team that reimbursed the patrons it would struggle to get the votes to be passed…
Each NBA team cares about it’s profit margin…