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Message: [QUOTE="nelsonmuntz, post: 5280394, member: 833"] Would you rather see the starters play 40 minutes of a late January game, or have a healthy, fresh team heading into the playoffs? The late season injuries in the NBA have gotten completely out of hand, and most of these injuries are fatigue-type injuries. Just as bad are the spent teams at the end of the season. Read any interview of any player, and they will talk about the fatigue and being tired at the end of the season. Either teams need to load manage or play fewer games. The NBA is part of the problem, but these old school coaches like Doc Rivers are a bigger part of the problem. Budenholzer was a lousy game coach, but he had the Bucks fresh heading into the playoffs, and he stretched out Middleton's, Lopez's and George Hill's careers. Rivers, Riddick and Thibodeau are burning players out like they are 1980's Billy Martin or Tommy Lasorda managing their pitching rotation. I expect to see a big dip by KAT next season because Thibodeau is just overplaying him. Kerr, Spoelstra and Popovich are good at stretching out careers. Atkinson did everything right, and it still didn't work out, but I expect that team to be back. I can't believe more GMs are not making their HC's to manage playing time better given the investment these teams make into stars and the damage an injury can do to a franchise. These players are getting massive contracts, and the salary cap means that an achilles or ACL not only wipes out a player's season, but makes it impossible for the franchise to replace the injured player, effectively burning the prime of any other star on the roster. Lillard's injury didn't just end his career as anything more than a role player, but also effectively ended the Giannis era in Milwaukee. I would have fired Doc in mid-game when Lillard went down if I was the Bucks' GM. Doc didn't just screw up one player, he dumped the Bucks into a long-term purgatory. It may be 5 or more years before the Bucks return to the playoffs if they trade Giannis this offseason, and it could be decades before a northern, small city franchise like the Bucks challenges for even a conference title. The Bucks went 17 years (2001 through 2018) without getting out of the first round. Hiring Rivers was dumb enough, but letting him burn the franchise to the ground with his 1990's coaching is unforgiveable. [/QUOTE]

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