Have NBA’s Load-Management Fixes Worked? Stars Suggest Not

The NBA is trying to fix load management. The results don’t show much has changed.

The league has tried to be proactive in altering its schedule—cutting down on back-to-back games over the last decade by 23%, and eliminating instances of four games in five nights and eight games in 12 nights. Coming into this year, the league has even made sure teams would not play the day before or after “high-profile national TV games,” which are games on Christmas, ABC on Saturday, TNT on MLK Day, and most of the national TV games on opening week.

Last season, the NBA also added a new Player Participation Policy, which penalized teams for a number of violations, including ensuring no more than one “star” player—one who has made the All-Star Game or All-NBA team once in the last three years—is unavailable for the same game. The first violation will cost teams $100,000, the second $250,000, the third $1.25 million—and an additional million dollars will be added for every successive violation. 

The league also added a 65-game threshold for regular-season awards, including All-NBA teams.

However, the number of players who played at least 65 games did not see a significant increase last season—and in fact, has seen a noticeable dip since the beginning of the decade.

Player Concerns

The figure above measures the total number of players across the league—but load management is about the league’s biggest names.

Stars like Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokić, and Tyrese Haliburton have all voiced concerns over the new rule. One of the main issues is that awards trigger several contract incentives—including supermax contract eligibility.

Haliburton admitted he returned early from a hamstring injury last season to try to hit the 65-game minimum, which he did, ultimately resulting in an All-NBA Third Team selection. He parlayed that selection to a five-year, $260 million contract, around $50 million more than he would have received had he missed the team.

While the Pacers star ultimately achieved his goal, his numbers took a noticeable dip after returning from injury.

“I understand where the league is coming from. At the end of the day, I’m a fan of basketball like everybody is. We want the best players to play. But realistically, like we talked about earlier, there’s only a couple of us this could hurt financially. … I want to play 82 games if I can. That’s just not how the cookie crumbles right now,” Haliburton told JJ Redick in January.

Embiid, who was on track to win back-to-back MVP Awards before suffering a meniscus tear in February, would be at risk of never earning another regular-season award after admitting last month he may never play back-to-backs again for the rest of his career. The Sixers have 15 this season, which would leave him just two more games before hitting the 65-game threshold. 

The Sixers big man, who has faced nagging injuries throughout his career that have kept him from advancing past the second round of the playoffs, admitted he needs to focus on staying healthy for the playoffs.