The NBA is reviewing the Nets‘ roster decisions for this past Wednesday’s game, reports Brian Lewis of The New York Post. According to Lewis, the league is evaluating whether Brooklyn opting to rest most of their top players qualifies as a fineable offense.
As we previously covered, the Nets held out starters Cameron Johnson, Nic Claxton, and Spencer Dinwiddie vs. Milwaukee in the second game of a back-to-back set after all three played on Tuesday. Johnson and Claxton were listed as out due to “injury maintenance,” while Dinwiddie was simply listed as out due to “rest.”
Brooklyn also didn’t use Mikal Bridges, Royce O’Neale, or Cam Thomas after the first quarter, giving their other starters a de facto rest day too. The move irked Bridges, who said after the game that he would’ve been fine handling his usual workload and pushing harder for a victory.
The new “player participation policy” instituted by the NBA this season only affects players who were named to an All-Star or All-NBA team in the past three seasons. The lone player on Brooklyn’s roster who meets that criteria is Ben Simmons, who has been sidelined since early November due to a back issue, so the team didn’t violate that policy on Wednesday.
However, the league has other rules related to resting healthy players that were implemented in the past in an effort to curb load management. Notably, the NBA discourages its teams from resting multiple healthy players in the same game.
As Lewis points out, the Nets were previously fined $25K last December when they held out eight regulars in a game against Indiana.
Is this a joke? Everyone is doing it every single game. Seriously are they serious about this. Just play 82 games or be fined. Silver you are a joke if you do something with this. I am not even a Nets fan
Nba might as well look into doing 2 game series where teams play back to back in same city.
I mean they basically do that already. I don’t think it’s ever a true back to back but 2 games in 3 days in the same city has been pretty standard since covid
This!
Everyone is sitting every other game making up fake injuries. This really grinds my gears
Making tens of millions a year and can’t go into work two nights in a row?
Say you know nothing about being an athlete louder.
NBA should be looking at teams like Lakers and 76ers first. They are resting Embiid and LBJ illegally all season. But we can’t fine preferred teams can we!
NBA just needs to play on certain days and maybe the load management issues will go away.
Wrong on Joel emvp.
maybe just get rid of back to backs?
The Nets aren’t exactly good enough to be throwing games away if they have any post-season aspirations.
Oh no…
Anyway…
All teams have the right to protect their players. NBA should have the lowest possible back to back games. Nothing wrong with extending the season if you must. Safety should always be a priority in the work place.