As a season progresses, every player develops injuries that they have to play with because of a short bench. As a result, the injuries do not heal or get worse. Playing tired increases the chance of injuries and is not fun, Kelly Ferris once said that having to play 35 minutes is not good; but, players do it because there is no one on the bench to replace them. It must reduce the pleasure in playing the game. II certainly reduces the player's performance. Usually when a player has a subpar performance, we learn later that they were playing injured.
You cannot , as Geno advises "play smart and enjoy the game," when you are exhausted and/or injured.
The year that Bill Walton played for the Celtics, they sometimes used a platoon system for part of the game. Walton and four other veteran players would come in to replace the starters.
Geno did that once when he was pissed off at the lazy play of the starters. In this case, it would be the younger players, who play together in practice. This would give them real game-time experience playing together, which they will do as the starting unit in future years.
So, as the wiseperson once said,
Now what’s the issue again???
