MIAMI — For years, Erik Spoelstra has stressed the Miami Heat’s distaste for load management, the resting of players otherwise fit to play.
Now, with a sweeping set of policy changes adopted Wednesday by the NBA Board of Governors, it no longer is a matter as easily left in team hands.
Among the NBA’s most dramatic changes is that a team in a game no longer can hold out for rest more than one player deemed as a star. That delineation comes based on if a player has made an All-Star Game or All-NBA team over the past three seasons.
For the Heat, the two players on the current roster who fit into that category are forward Jimmy Butler (All-Star in 2022, All-NBA in 2021 and ’23) and center Bam Adebayo (All-Star in 2023).
Last season, Butler and Adebayo were held out of the same game three times, with each listed with injuries for those games. Under the new policy, such dual absence would continue to be allowed with confirmed injuries, but also be placed under additional league scrutiny.
Where the situation becomes murky is the definition of injury. Butler, for example, who turns 34 on Thursday, last season was held out twice for hip tightness, then six times for knee soreness, and then three times was listed as being out due to “Right Knee Injury Management.” In all, he missed 18 regular-season games.
Should the Heat acquire Damian Lillard, with the Portland Trail Blazers guard having requested a trade to the Heat, he, too, would fall into the star category, with the 33-year-old guard an All-Star in 2021 and ’23 and All-NBA in 2021 and ’23.
Spoelstra has been outspoken about the policy of resting otherwise able players, with the Heat coach last season stressing, “We’re not going load management; we’re the Miami Heat.”
But Spoelstra also has been protective of older players, last season offering extended rest to 37-year-old point guard Kyle Lowry, who dealt with knee pain over the second half of the schedule. Lowry does not fall into the star-player category of the injury policy, having last made the All-Star Game in 2020 and having last made All-NBA in 2016.
Spoelstra insisted during the Heat’s run to last season’s NBA Finals that the approach with Butler and Lowry was beyond keeping players fresh for the playoffs.
“We were not doing the typical stuff of like load managing or just counting games,” he said. “We were doing whatever we had to do to try and put ourselves in a position to win.”
The new regulations, which come with significant financial sanctions, also penalize teams for holding such players out of nationally televised games or games that are part of the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament.
The Heat have 16 games currently scheduled for what the NBA deems national television: two on ABC, six on TNT and eight on ESPN. The NBA does not count games on NBA TV as such appearances. The Heat’s schedule of national appearances could increase with an acquisition of Lillard.
In theory, such further tightening of the NBA rules regarding rest over the 82-game regular-season could take a degree of control away from coaches that attempt to best align their team’s won-loss record when factoring in scheduling and fatigue.
Heat forward Caleb Martin said a year ago that players accept the nuances of selective rest.
“He does a great job of resting guys when he needs to,” Martin said of Spoelstra, “and I’m sure he’s very strategic with it. So obviously everybody on the team trusts his judgment and we’re never going to question what he does.”
Teams will not be sanctioned for the absences involving personal situations, with Heat players having missed time in recent years due to illnesses of children and parents.
The NBA previously changed the requirements for postseason awards, now requiring players to appear in at least 65 games — with only selected exceptions — in order to qualify for such honors.
Significant is that it is teams, not players, who will be fined for what the NBA would deem unexcused absences, a scale that rises to in excess of $1 million for each violation.
The Heat twice were fined $25,000 last season for what the NBA deemed “failing to comply with league policies regarding injury reporting.” After one of those fines, the team then listed all 16 players on the roster on the injury report for the following game.
Unlike the previous injury policy for missed games, the new rules include possible league medical evaluation in addition to team-physician determinations.
The new approach continues to stress the examination of players missing road games, thereby denying fans in those cities of such limited appearances.
The new league policy offers allowances for teams sitting players late in the season, as the Heat did during their final regular-season road game last season.
As part of the new policy, a league release issued Wednesday offered the following bullet points, that a team must:
— Manage its roster to ensure that no more than one star player is unavailable for the same game.
— Ensure that star players are available for all national television and NBA In-Season Tournament games.
— Maintain a balance between the number of one-game absences for a star player in home and road games.
— Refrain from any long-term “shutdowns” in which a star player stops playing games.
— If resting a healthy player, ensure that the player is present at the games and visible to fans.
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