By Mardeio Cannon | OBSERVER Columnist
I realize that some of you panicked when you didn’t see your favorite column last month. Please forgive me for not warning you that I would be on vacation. Now, “Cannon’s Comments” and the NBA are back from vacation!
Since the Denver Nuggets won their first NBA title this past June, led by Nikola “I rather be with my horses” Jokić and the Canadian “Comeback Kid” Jamal Murray, they’re looking to be a formidable team to contend with for a long time barring an injury to a key player.
However, one of the key decisions that was made by the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and NBA management this off season was dealing with the thorny issue of load management.
NBA fans pay some hefty prices to see their favorite NBA superstar players when they come into your home arena. Sometimes, your favorite NBA superstar plays in the opposite conference, and that means they only come into your arena once a year. So, instead of seeing your favorite player do his thing on the court the one time they come to your arena, you get to watch him on the bench in his designer clothes, and the star player is not even injured. The NBA was also very concerned that on some nationally televised games, some teams would sit out their star players, which doesn’t sit well with major advertisers who paid big dollars for the game.
However, some NBA teams felt that it was important to rest their star players throughout the long NBA season with the theory that targeted rest would ensure that the player would be in better shape for the playoffs.
The new load management policy of the NBA goes into effect this upcoming season. Many critics, however, have stated that the plan is not strong enough to deter some form of load management from some NBA teams.
The “highlights” of the new load management policy that the NBA has implemented this upcoming season has two main components.
1. The NBA has designated 50 players as “star players.” Resting any of these players will bring heavy fines to their NBA team if the player sits out of a nationally televised game if the player is not injured.
2. The NBA also has set a minimum number of games that NBA players must play to qualify for a major award. Most star NBA players have lucrative incentive clauses in their contracts if they win some major awards like MVP and are named on the All-NBA teams at the end of the season.
No matter what, this promises to be an exciting upcoming NBA season and all eyes will be on the Milwaukee Bucks with the addition of All-Star guard Damian Lillard to the team.
Next week: My evaluation of the Sacramento Kings upcoming season.