Warriors Coach Feels Trimming Games Will Help Address Criticized Ploy Before Playoffs

KEY POINTS

Steve Kerr feels lowering the number of regular-season games can address the NBA's load management row
Cutting down games will make each match relevant, but it will affect the NBA's revenue
League commissioner Adam Silver is wary of the practice of NBA teams resting players

To this day, one of the highly-criticized tactics of NBA teams is the resting of players towards the end of the regular season.

The ploy is something that NBA teams resort to, a move meant to rest their key players in preparation for the playoffs.

No less than NBA commissioner Adam Silver has noticed the practice and has expressed concern about the tactic.

However, one person who has an interesting proposal is Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.

Kerr believes that one possible solution to address the trend of teams resting players is to shorten the regular-season games.

From the current 82 outings, the 56-year-old coach believes cutting it to 72 matches could work.

The Warriors coach believes that doing this would lead to players not needing to have many days off.

“To me what makes the most sense is cutting back to maybe a 72 game schedule. Take 10 games off, and get more time to rest in between games. I think you'll get teams to play their guys more often,” Kerr told Golden State Warriors beat reporter Mark Haynes.

While Kerr’s proposal would make sense to address the rest issue, it also has its drawbacks.

On a positive note, the reduction of games would make matches more relevant.

However, it would also affect the revenue for the NBA and this would radiate to other concerns such as players possibly having to take pay cuts.

Silver addressed the load management issue after an NBA Board of Governors meeting last Wednesday, April 6 that was reported by Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

“I also have said in the past, if we have too many games, that’s something we should look at as well… It’s something, as we sit down and we’re looking at new media deals and looking at a new collective bargaining agreement, we will be studying,” Silver stated.

Altering the length of the season has its ups and downs. It may not be relevant now but can potentially be an issue later on–a reason why the NBA needs to take another look at how to approach it.