Minutes played in April

[Bruno]

A quick look at minutes played in April:
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/minutes/sort/minutes/qualified/false/split/45

Leading players:
1: Rudy Gay: 446 minutes
2: LeBron James: 442 minutes
3: Pau Gasol: 424 minutes
4: Rajon Rondo: 421 minutes
5: Kevin Durant: 419 minutes

Now, the results for Spurs players and where they rank among the league:
123: Danny Green: 263 minutes
132: Tony Parker: 255 minutes
147: Stephen Jackson: 241 minutes
151: Tim Duncan: 237 minutes
161: Kawhi Leonard: 232 minutes
167: Manu Ginobili: 227 minutes
182: Matt Bonner: 210 minutes
191: Boris Diaw: 204 minutes
206: Tiago Splitter: 192 minutes
209: Gary Neal: 188 minutes
239: Dejuan Blair: 166 minutes
254: Patrick Mills: 150 minutes
314: James Anderson: 71 minutes

Some thoughts:

- WoW. Pop is known for being a master at managing minutes but it's reaching an unreal level lately even if he has been helped by some blowouts. On the year, Parker is 56th in minutes played followed by Duncan at the 109th spot.

- Aside of the little minutes played, what is remarkable is how well balanced is the repartition among players.

- These few minutes played by Spurs players isn't the result of less games played. In April, they have played 11 games so far which is above the league average.

- Spurs players should rise a little in this ranking because they have 5 games left while most of the team have 3 or 4 games left. Even considering that, Spurs should enter in the playoffs with one of the more fresh roster in the league despite having a crazy April schedule.

- If Pop wants to go with a shorter rotation in some of the screaming games for either work his playoffs rotation or seeding considerations. He could do it peacefully.

- Spurs are 9-2 in April with Danny Green as their player logging the most minutes. Who could have believed it back in December when the NBA released its schedule? Not me, that's sure.

:smokin

[buttsR4rebounding]

No wonder that LBJ has complained about being tired...

[benefactor]

Pretty impressive. Depth ftw.

[100%duncan]

Wow, very great stat. Kudos to Pop.

[Fireball]

Splitter with more minutes than Blair ... but less than Bonner of course

[polandprzem]

We will probably gonna see Pop using 10man rotation beginning the playoffs.
It's impossible for the players to play that much above their average minutes once the PO will start.

And that would be something winning with such a big squad

[vander]

TD still gonna be more tired in any playoff 4th quarter than the likes of lebron and durant

[Fireball]

TD still gonna be more tired in any playoff 4th quarter than the likes of lebron and durant

Yeah, but he does not have to be as fresh either ... because his role is not as huge compared to Lebron and Durant. Its gonna be interesting if Timmy can continue his recent output in the playoffs ... his knees must feel fine considering how much he dunks the ball lately ...

[Mel_13]

TD still gonna be more tired in any playoff 4th quarter than the likes of lebron and durant

A 23 year old and a 27 year old will display greater endurance than a 36 year old?

Ya think?

[freetiago]

Just shows how hard pop babies these guys but it is impressive
dont know if theyll be able to handle the increase in minutes
im actually against a huge minute change in the playoff
duncan should not be playing 36 minutes in the playoffs
manu should be around 30 max unless hes playing well and feeling it
only parker should be at 36-40
probably cut down on minutes for guys like mills/bonner/blair and give it to tiago/diaw/neal and the team is fine
always lol when people here say some guy is playing to much when he only plays like 30 mins per game on a set back to backs
guys like rudy gay play 40+ mins every single game

[Wild Cobra Kai]

^^Try some punctuation, and an occasional capital letter.

[will_spurs]

This is really impressive. Actually starting 5 * 29 teams = 145 players. That means several bench players on other teams have played more minutes in April than all but 2 of the Spurs players.

[Darkwaters]

- Spurs are 9-2 in April with Danny Green as their player logging the most minutes. Who could have believed it back in December when the NBA released its schedule? Not me, that's sure.

:smokin

Danny Green is an animal!

[hater]

not that surprising. we been mauling teams with lineups of Bonner, Diaw, Jax, Neal and Patty

[Bruno]

This is really impressive. Actually starting 5 * 29 teams = 145 players. That means several bench players on other teams have played more minutes in April than all but 2 of the Spurs players.

IMO, the most impressive to look at is 4*29=116. Other teams have an average of 4 players that have played more than the Spurs player that has played the most.

[vander]

A 23 year old and a 27 year old will display greater endurance than a 36 year old?

Ya think?

my point was: all this minute limiting isn't really going to make anybody more fresh in the playoffs

[TE]

my point was: all this minute limiting isn't really going to make anybody more fresh in the playoffs

:lmao:lmao

[Mel_13]

my point was: all this minute limiting isn't really going to make anybody more fresh in the playoffs

As a deep playoff run progresses, perhaps. They will be better off at the outset.

[Interrohater]

my point was: all this minute limiting isn't really going to make anybody more fresh in the playoffs
I've got to disagree with you, man. When you have a couple of older players like Tim and Manu being able to keep up their conditioning, but not push past to the point of exhaustion, it's huge. Because it seems that they're not playing past muscle fatigue, they're less prone to......... (I won't say it because I'm a bit superstitious about these things.) So while it may not give a distinct advantage such as super awesome basketball powers, it does allow them to come in feeling well rested and fresh. Think about it this way: If you are only getting 5 hours of sleep a night for two weeks straight because your job makes you have this sleep pattern, you're not really going to be at your peak operation. Getting a good 8 hours of sleep allows you to perform at maximum potential. It's similar to the minutes played here. Maybe I'm wrong because it's all hypothetical, but it seems to make sense.

[DesignatedT]

impressive.

[therealtruth]

I've got to disagree with you, man. When you have a couple of older players like Tim and Manu being able to keep up their conditioning, but not push past to the point of exhaustion, it's huge. Because it seems that they're not playing past muscle fatigue, they're less prone to......... (I won't say it because I'm a bit superstitious about these things.) So while it may not give a distinct advantage such as super awesome basketball powers, it does allow them to come in feeling well rested and fresh. Think about it this way: If you are only getting 5 hours of sleep a night for two weeks straight because your job makes you have this sleep pattern, you're not really going to be at your peak operation. Getting a good 8 hours of sleep allows you to perform at maximum potential. It's similar to the minutes played here. Maybe I'm wrong because it's all hypothetical, but it seems to make sense.

What happens when you have a playoff game that goes overtime? I don't think they will be able to do it. In fact they probably haven't played that many overtime games.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

This postseason will give us more data on whether or not resting matters in the playoffs


Also, Pop rests players to avoid injuries, not necessarilyso we have surplus of energy on the playoffs

[Solid D]

Good post, Bruno. All the more reason to support the plan to give double digit minutes to 10 Spurs players in the playoffs.. It worked in '07. It can work again.

[Libri]

nice time management :tu

[z0sa]

Excellent observation. Considering the Spurs are also shooting a blazing 50% from the field for tops in the League in April, you really gotta hand it (the Red Auerbach trophy, that is) to Pop. He's done quite well with managing players, minutes and rotations (besides Dejuan and Splitter) to accent the Spurs strengths, namely depth, shooting and experience. And unlike last year, it seems that the Spurs are peaking at the right time: late in the season with the playoffs right around the corner.

[Bill_Brasky]

Pop = COY

[JR3]

Interesting. Maybe they should take this into account when looking at MVP candidates.

[crc21209]

Good find. :tu Very impressive for sure...

[Dr. John R. Brinkley]

I look at this differently.

I don't think the takeaway from this is just that Pop rests his starters - we already know that. I see this more as validation on how deep the team is and how successful they are by playing a deep roster.

Conventional wisdom might suggest that Pop has rested the Big 3 so they can play more minutes in the playoffs. I would argue that the bench is so effective they demand to get minutes, and in fact, our deep bench has been the key to the Spurs success this year. That's not really novel, but I don't think it makes any sense for Pop to drastically shorten the rotation. I don't think our starting 5 is good enough to take us deep in the playoffs by themselves.

Even though Pop has used our depth to rest Tim and Manu, I think our current 10 player rotation is what is needed moving forward.

For one, it's too late to drastically change the rotation (other than 86ing Blair, which I agree with). The current rotation has been damn successful lately. Sure it might be more for the regular season than playoffs, but I don't think playing Tim and Manu 40 minutes a night is going to be a guarantee, unless they capture magic, and then Pop will have to adjust. We'll see what Pop does. But I would hope he plays to our depth and adjusts according to what matchups work, and not some pre-ordained plan he concocts in his wine cellar while sipping on pinot noir.

[ducks]

gasol tired?