After consecutive Saturday’s that featured prime-time games with some of the leagues biggest stars resting, conversation of how to improve the NBA’s 82 game schedule is heating up again.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver admitted that the league needs to figure out a way to improve it’s scheduling to avoid these situations in an official statement earlier this week, but also implied that resting star players for marquee matchups is something that is (obviously) not in the league’s best interest.
Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr, rested four of his stars two Saturday’s ago for a nationally televised clash with the San Antonio Spurs, turning one of the most anticipated games of the year into a relatively pointless exercise. The tactic seems to have worked, however, with the Warriors winning their fifth game in a row on Tuesday night, and looking rejuvenated after a brutal eight game road trip.
Kerr told ESPN prior to the Warriors’ 112-87 win on Tuesday, that he believes the NBA schedule should ultimately be shortened, to the point where he’d be willing to take a pay cut if necessary.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to it, even at the expense to my own salary, but it’s something that everyone would have to agree to,” Kerr said. “I think even just going down to 75 games, I think that would make a dramatic difference in schedule. Now I don’t see that happening because there is money at stake for everybody.
“I do think this can be remedied though — maybe not remedied — but I think it can be dramatically helped with what the league is already working on for next year and the consideration of geographics when it comes to the schedule.”
The NBA adopted the 82 game schedule in 1967-68, but has reduced the amount of back-to-back games in recent years, and will also be extending the league year by a week next season to give teams more rest.
Kerr said he does understand the issue of resting players from both a business and fan perspective, and indicated he trusts Silver to come up with a proper solution.
“I do feel bad for the fans,” Kerr said. “I also know resting those guys last week was something that was beneficial, and I think it’s shown to be so this past week. You can see our guys are fresher, their legs. So what can we all do, together? And I think that’s where Adam is really good in terms of taking a lot of opinions and finding solutions. This is not a right-or-wrong issue. It’s what can we do to best serve the league, best serve the players’ health. Is there a compromise?
“We’re already working on that by extending the season next year by 7-10 days. I think that’s going to be very helpful, and I think the broadcast partners and the league can pay closer attention to the schedule when it comes out next year as they put that together. These are all things that we all have to work on.”
