Because of a mixture of personal reasons, return-from-injury, Health and Safety Protocols, new injuries, rest nights, conservative treatment of not-so-serious injuries, the 2021 Brooklyn Nets ran an absolute clinic in load management. The big three of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden only appeared in eight regular season games. It wasn't a surprise when head coach Steve Nash would give the update that both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving would out of the lineup last year.
Some games coach Nash would even clear his bench to rest his starters a few minutes well-before the a game was out of hand, sending a clear signal to the NBA “we want to be healthy for the playoffs more than we want home court advantage.”
One night that seemed to summarize their approach last season was an April showdown in in Philadelphia. Harden was out. Durant didn't dress. Irving was available but resting on the bench when the Nets' reserves cut into the Sixers lead. Nash opted not to bring Kyrie back into a close 3 point ballgame with over two minutes remaining. It was an eminently winnable contest but the Nets basically said “meh, we'd rather a few extra minutes of rest for Ky than a massive one-seed-on-the-line” win.
Fast forward. It's a pretty big contrast from this season's strategy so far. The 2022 Nets seem like they're pushing a lot harder than last year's group.
It's hard to say why exactly the calculus may have changed. Nash has said it will be less “formulaic” this year. That team a year ago expected a “big three” at some point. This team, with Irving out potentially all season, may not. So perhaps there's more motivation to hit the throttle.
Paul Millsap is out for personal reasons. Nic Claxton is dealing with what seems like a rather serious non-COVID illness. He hasn't appeared in a game since October 25th. Joe Harris is now nursing an ankle issue. So on top of the sudden adjustment to life without Irving, the Nets are genuinely short-handed.
Harden was asked, following a 109-99 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, if something changed from last season's load management strategy.
“I don’t think it was a change,” said Harden. “I think it was that you know if I don’t play or Kevin don’t play it’s like we’re already down numbers. You know what I mean?”
The ASU legend continued “we just gotta keep fighting man just find ways to come away with wins, find ways to keep improving on both ends of the ball. It’s a long season. There’s gonna be a lot of ups and downs but feel like we’re in a little bit in a funk right now in a sense of just everything. But you win, keep going. Get ready for Friday.”
Do you worry about the minutes adding up? “I mean we’ll deal with that later. Right now we just hooping.”
"I don’t think it was a change, I think it was that you know if I don’t play or Kevin don’t play it’s like we’re already down numbers. You know what I mean?"
Kevin Durant and James Harden both rank top 10 in total minutes played. Harden sounded wiped after 8 games in 13 nights. pic.twitter.com/Wy7Ca1ZLiI— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) November 18, 2021
Big minutes for the big two
Heading into the 17th game of season the Nets star duo both rank top ten in the league for total minutes played. Durant comes in 7th overall in minutes played, having logged 555 in total. The NBA total points leader now, KD is playing 34.7 minutes per game, his highest clip since his 2016 campaign with the Thunder. The average age of the six players who have logged more burn than KD is just 26.3 years-old.
For Harden his slow ramp-up and inconsistent play has been attributed to his summer spent rehabbing the grade two hamstring he sustained last season. As much as that has been talked about, he hasn't had any rest days yet. The Beard, third overall in total assists, ranks 10th in the league in total minutes played.
In minutes per game they rank 28th (Durant at 34.7) and 34th (Harden at 34.4) respectively. The reason they rank so much higher in total minutes played is because they recently played a ton of games. They have played two more games than the first place Wizards. After the most recent win Harden sounded pretty wiped.
Told he's played eight games in 13 nights he replied “Shhhh, wow I knew we were playing a lot but I guess it's what they gave us,” said the former 6th man and former MVP.
If these Nets could talk to last season's Nets they might say “Irving isn't coming back, KD is another year removed from his Achilles issue, James feels good and needs to get his conditioning back, it's worth pushing, we'll buy them rest later.” And if last year's group had the chance to weigh in they might retort “take it from us, whatever you're pushing for now isn't worth it if you're not healthy and fresh for the playoffs.”
It's a balance. But it sure looks like the the Nets stars could use a rest day soon.
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