Minutes played in April

[Bill_Brasky]

Pop = COY

[JR3]

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

[crc21209]

Good find. 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?