A Tired Discussion

[SRJ]

This morning, a discussion took part between Marques Johnson and John Fricke (sp?) on Fox Sports Radio. The discussion centered around Dallas resting their key players down the stretch after clinching the #1 overall seed. The question was, and I paraphrase, Should teams be allowed to rest their guys?

This same question was discussed by Wally and Vex a couple of weeks ago, and I can't believe this is a question. There must not be enough American Idol or Decorum Forum to fill time.

The main objective of the regular season is to maximize your standing for the playoffs. Once you have done that, make sure your best players don't get hurt. Why the would anyone question this? What's more important - playing for a championship, or making sure Joe Fan gets to see Dirk Nowitzki shoot in the 79th game of the year?

I really hope this kind of thing stops coming up in talk shows.

[FromWayDowntown]

This morning, a discussion took part between Marques Johnson and John Fricke (sp?) on Fox Sports Radio. The discussion centered around Dallas resting their key players down the stretch after clinching the #1 overall seed. The question was, and I paraphrase, Should teams be allowed to rest their guys?

This same question was discussed by Wally and Vex a couple of weeks ago, and I can't believe this is a question. There must not be enough American Idol or Decorum Forum to fill time.

The main objective of the regular season is to maximize your standing for the playoffs. Once you have done that, make sure your best players don't get hurt. Why the would anyone question this? What's more important - playing for a championship, or making sure Joe Fan gets to see Dirk Nowitzki shoot in the 79th game of the year?

I really hope this kind of thing stops coming up in talk shows.

I think the dilemma, though, is that Dallas -- or any other team -- resting players in a particular game becomes problematic when the game in which those players are resting has playoff implications for other teams. For instance, and I don't mean to single out the Mavericks, but the game they played this week in Oakland against the Warriors was a game of no significance to the Mavericks; but it was obviously of great significance to both Golden State and the Clippers. It turned out, because the Clippers lost on the last night of the season, that the game had less significance in its aftermath. But, by resting all of their key players and, essentially, handing a win to the Warriors, the Mavericks all but assured that Golden State would qualify for the playoffs while virtually ending the Clippers chances.

Now, I do think that the teams that are still seeking a playoff birth at that point in time have only themselves to blame and can't realistically expect an elite team to expose its players to the possibility of injury in an effort to ensure that games are truly compe ive in the last week.

I can see that it becomes a tired subject for talk radio, largely because there is no right answer. I can see why some thought it was a bit, um, curious for the Mavs to punt in Oakland while playing everyone in a totally meaningless game against the Sonics the next night. That is the sort of stuff that makes some fans believe that the NBA isn't completely on the up-and-up.