There has been some confusion regarding the “load management” designation through the early stages of this season, with Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard in the middle of it all after he missed several nationally televised games.
In light of this fact, the NBA is setting new guidelines for the way teams are to list players on their injury reports to help eliminate confusion.
The NBA sought to eliminate such confusion in the wake of this month's Leonard brouhaha, as Byron Spruell, the NBA's president of league operations, told ESPN in an interview last week. The league outlined new guidelines for injury reporting in a Nov. 11 memo to teams, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN.
The short version: Load management is now rest. Period. If you see that term, it will mean a healthy player is taking the night off. If skipping that particular game violates the league's resting policy, that player's team will be penalized.
Load management is not a new movement in the NBA. Some teams take advantage of it, but in Leonard's case, he was actually injured and has been managing injuries for several seasons now. The Klaw missed most of the 2017-18 season due to a case of tendinopathy in his right quad. He played in just 60 regular-season games with the Raptors last season, and he has been battling a knee injury this season as well:
“What has been confusing — and I'm not picking on Kawhi — but ‘load management' was one of the causes people put out for why he sat out, and it's not,” Spruell said, via ESPN. “He's an injured player.”
Resting players is a trend that will likely continue. With this new initiative from the NBA, though, they'll be labeled as such.
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