NBA: What to think about Resting Players for the Playoffs?

Resting players for the playoffs has been a subject of conversation in the NBA, but in other leagues as well. It really came into focus in the spring of 2017, when the head coach of the Golden State Warriors rested his healthy star players, before entering the final stage of the season. The team then won all of its games and the championship as well, only losing one game in the playoffs in the process. However, resting players does not necessarily appeal to fans. Here is more on the subject of resting players in the NBA.

Large Salaries affect Ticket Prices

When a player makes $20 million, $30 million or more, this money has to come back in some ways to the team who is paying his salary. It definitely explains why ticket prices have gone up so much throughout the last decades. When you pay to see a live game, you expect to watch the best players do their thing, on the court. If coaches decide to rest them, because they want to have better chances of winning a championship, you may be filled with anger, having had to pay full price for a much reduced team. Especially if you have placed a wager on the game. To be aware of all that can affect an NBA matchup, check out the Wincomparator website to get today’s best NBA betting tips.

This year, this subject came up in many articles on websites specialized in sports, by professional journalists, but also by players from the NBA and other sports. As with all subjects, opinions differ. But it has to be said that many voices are offering their negative opinions on the subject. Even players from other sports are looking at this with irony. It is the case with one of the NHL’s superstar, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, who shared a video of the hits in the hockey league and the bumps that NBA players may have with each other, every once in a while, on a basketball court. It asked the question about resting NBA players, insinuating that they are quite soft if they need the rest just for playing basketball.

Does resting Players Really benefits Them?

The more important point to this issue is that resting players may not be beneficial to them, after all. At least, that is what a study in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine suggests. It states that resting players (in any sport) augments the risks of injuries. Furthermore, if you look at numbers of individual players over a period of ten years, you will notice that those who missed some times, away from the game, had trouble getting back to their normal performances, afterwards.

Researchers also compared statistics on rested players and those who continued playing throughout the season. The results indicate that there is no difference between the two. The only issue that separates them is the danger for a rested player to be more prone to injury. And so, we can conclude that resting players for the playoffs is not such a good idea, after all.