Managing Minutes - short term vs long term or short sightedness vs vision?

[Primer]

Speaking of excessive minutes and consequences

https://twitter.com/tomhaberstroh/st...33916508024836

edit: How do I insert the tweet itself rather than just the link. Have no clue.

Click on the three dots ..., then click on embed tweet, and it will have the html code highlighted for you. Copy it and paste it here, like so.

Ugh. Butler played 47 mins on 2nd night of B2B. Missed next gm w/bad left knee. Then played at DEN and was carted off the floor. Sad stuff.

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) February 9, 2016

[3inthekeon]

Click on the three dots ..., then click on embed tweet, and it will have the html code highlighted for you. Copy it and paste it here, like so.

Ugh. Butler played 47 mins on 2nd night of B2B. Missed next gm w/bad left knee. Then played at DEN and was carted off the floor. Sad stuff.

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) February 9, 2016

Thanks

[tDotted]

Click on the three dots ..., then click on embed tweet, and it will have the html code highlighted for you. Copy it and paste it here, like so.

Ugh. Butler played 47 mins on 2nd night of B2B. Missed next gm w/bad left knee. Then played at DEN and was carted off the floor. Sad stuff.

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) February 9, 2016

It's sad how Thibs got (and still has) such a bad rep for overplaying players..

[DanH]

So, now three of the top 5 players in MPG are currently injured (Butler, KCP and Knight). I'm sure that's not a bad sign for Lowry, who has played more minutes per game than any of them over the past 15 games (except Knight, who played in 4 of those 15 games before going down to injury) and sits 4th on the season leaderboard...

[white men can't jump]

It's sad how Thibs got (and still has) such a bad rep for overplaying players..

Yup. Chicago's issues have always been about depth, or rather drop off. For many of Thibs' years they just didn't have enough pieces, that's why guys like Deng and Butler got run into the ground.

[Barolt]

So, now three of the top 5 players in MPG are currently injured (Butler, KCP and Knight). I'm sure that's not a bad sign for Lowry, who has played more minutes per game than any of them over the past 15 games (except Knight, who played in 4 of those 15 games before going down to injury) and sits 4th on the season leaderboard...

Marc Gasol down now too, highest minutes played for a center.

It seems like high minutes might actually take a toll.

[JWash]

Marc Gasol down now too, highest minutes played for a center.

It seems like high minutes might actually take a toll.

Or it's just chance.

Last year out of the top 10 guys in mpg, none had serious injuries. Harden, LeBron and Davis did miss more than 10 games each but that was it and sort of abnormal for them.

In 13-14 out of the top 10 guys in mpg, only 1 played less than 73 games (Butler - 67)

In 12-13 all of the top 10 played 73+ games

11-12 was a shortened season (66), most games missed was 13 by Rondo

10-11 Only Rudy Gay and Deron Williams ran into injury problems playing 54 games and 65 games, rest over 71 and 7 of the top 10 over 79

09-10 Only Ellis missed significant time, missing 18 games, Melo missed 13, rest missed less than 10 games. Ellis was the league leader in minutes that year with 41.4

Not really seeing a correlation. And the further back you go, the MORE minutes guys were playing like in 2009-10, the 10th place guy played 38.0mpg which would lead the league right now.

[Barolt]

Or it's just chance.

Last year out of the top 10 guys in mpg, none had serious injuries. Harden, LeBron and Davis did miss more than 10 games each but that was it and sort of abnormal for them.

In 13-14 out of the top 10 guys in mpg, only 1 played less than 73 games (Butler - 67)

In 12-13 all of the top 10 played 73+ games

11-12 was a shortened season (66), most games missed was 13 by Rondo

10-11 Only Rudy Gay and Deron Williams ran into injury problems playing 54 games and 65 games, rest over 71 and 7 of the top 10 over 79

09-10 Only Ellis missed significant time, missing 18 games, Melo missed 13, rest missed less than 10 games. Ellis was the league leader in minutes that year with 41.4

Not really seeing a correlation. And the further back you go, the MORE minutes guys were playing like in 2009-10, the 10th place guy played 38.0mpg which would lead the league right now.

For last year, this is only true by minutes per game.

Kyrie played 1961 minutes in 52 games pre-allstar break, in first, finished in 10th.
Jimmy Butler was 4th in minutes at the all-star break, played only 600 minutes and 16 games post all-star break.
Kyle Lowry was in 10th in minutes at the all-star break, played only 500 minutes and 27 games post all-star break.(this is the one that matters)

[CNinja26]

Everyone is getting injured these days in the NBA - high minutes players, low minutes players. Guys can find other ways to rest than just mpg in a basketball game. They do have frequent practices with scrimmages, intense workout sessions, etc. Taking it easier in some of these physically-demanding tasks can easily mitigate what would translate into a few minutes a game. It's not like Kyle plays in summer leagues or international basketball, and has had years of deep playoff runs. A major part of Kyle's issue last year was that he was out of shape. This year, he is very much in shape and is prepared for the grind. I do think his minutes should eventually go down as the year progresses, but I don't think it's that big of deal.

[Scraptor]

Marc Gasol down now too, highest minutes played for a center.

It seems like high minutes might actually take a toll.

Rough day for big minute guys. Jimmy Butler leads all players in minutes per game and Marc Gasol leads all centers.

— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) February 9, 2016

Thing is, even if Kyle doesn't get injured outright, you wonder how dead his legs are going to be by the time the playoffs roll around. Tim Duncan didn't make deep playoff runs to the age of 104 without Pop carefully managing his minutes.

[Axel]

A major part of Kyle's issue last year was that he was out of shape. This year, he is very much in shape and is prepared for the grind.

Or he is less able to take the physical toll with the slender frame. No one knows yet if it will allow him to play more longer or simply breakdown at a different time frame.

His playing style is crash and bang - not sure slender Kyle is actually better equipped for that. If he were a finesse player, it would make more sense to make that assumption.

[SkywalkerAC]

Feels like our players have had plenty of days off recently.

[JWash]

Or he is less able to take the physical toll with the slender frame. No one knows yet if it will allow him to play more longer or simply breakdown at a different time frame.

His playing style is crash and bang - not sure slender Kyle is actually better equipped for that. If he were a finesse player, it would make more sense to make that assumption.

Does Lowry really play "crash and bang"? He's not Westbrook, his shot chart (in terms of where most of his shots come from) looks more like Steph Curry's. Think to a certain extent that Lowry actually does have a pretty finesse game I mean he's taking almost half his shots from 3 and over 7 a game. Defensively he's guarding PGs like everyone else, definitely takes more charges than most guys, but I mean in a season you take like 30 ish charges tops (Cousins led the league last year with 34).

I'd say someone like DeRozan has more of a crash and bang play style in terms of getting to the rim regularly and constantly seeking out contact. Neither of them are a Westbrook or DWade though where they're flying in there play after play seemingly out of control trying to score.

[KeonClark]

Everyone is getting injured these days in the NBA - high minutes players, low minutes players. Guys can find other ways to rest than just mpg in a basketball game. They do have frequent practices with scrimmages, intense workout sessions, etc. Taking it easier in some of these physically-demanding tasks can easily mitigate what would translate into a few minutes a game. It's not like Kyle plays in summer leagues or international basketball, and has had years of deep playoff runs. A major part of Kyle's issue last year was that he was out of shape. This year, he is very much in shape and is prepared for the grind. I do think his minutes should eventually go down as the year progresses, but I don't think it's that big of deal.

This.

[Primer]

Everyone is getting injured these days in the NBA - high minutes players, low minutes players. Guys can find other ways to rest than just mpg in a basketball game. They do have frequent practices with scrimmages, intense workout sessions, etc. Taking it easier in some of these physically-demanding tasks can easily mitigate what would translate into a few minutes a game. It's not like Kyle plays in summer leagues or international basketball, and has had years of deep playoff runs. A major part of Kyle's issue last year was that he was out of shape. This year, he is very much in shape and is prepared for the grind. I do think his minutes should eventually go down as the year progresses, but I don't think it's that big of deal.

Lowry was completely worn out in the playoffs last year due to high minutes and usage. I'm sure the better conditioning this year will help, but you can't pretend that players don't get worn out as the season goes on. If Casey isn't going to limit his minutes now, then whenever we lock up the 1/2 seed, he better start playing Lowry a lot lot less to get him fresh for the playoffs.