(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz guard Rodney Hood (5) nails a three pointer over San Antonio Spurs guard Bryn Forbes (11) during the second half of the NBA basketball game in Salt Lake City, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017.
Scroll down an NBA team’s injury report on any given night and, there among the sprained ankles and strained knees, you might very well find a guy who is simply getting the night off.
And you can probably thank Gregg Popovich for that.
NBA types are quick to call their world a “copycat league” and every team in the association has followed Popovich’s lead when it comes to keeping players fresh during the regular season.
But while Popovich has rankled league officials with his approach in the past — famously incurring a $250,000 fine for once sending four key players home from a road trip — the Spurs’ boss says he is on board with the NBA’s current regulations regarding rest.
“It’s a give and take, but I think it’s working pretty well,” Popovich said Thursday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
In September, the NBA’s Board of Governors passed a rule prohibiting teams from resting healthy players during marquee, nationally televised games. Commissioner Adam Silver can levy fines in excess of $100,000 for violations.
With the Spurs and Jazz playing a game televised on TNT on Thursday, Popovich opted to rest starters Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard the night before. The Spurs’ stars were back in the lineup — and back in front of a national TV audience — on Thursday.
For Jazz coach Quin Snyder, there are still some questions regarding the NBA and its enforcement of the new rule.
“I think the one thing is sometimes there’s some ambiguity in the evaluation of who is it OK to rest and who is not OK to rest,” Snyder said. “That’s going to be ongoing.”
Snyder on Thursday wondered if the rule might penalize teams when coaches leave players on the bench for other reasons.
“If we get healthy, it’s hard to play 12 players,” Snyder said. “So on any given night, if we’re playing a nine- or 10-man rotation, the player who’s not playing, are we resting him?”
Against the Jazz, the Spurs held guard Manu Ginobili out of action, and listed “rest” as the reason on their injury report. Popovich said the Spurs have been in touch with the league to discuss plans to rest players this season.
“They’re very willing to discuss those sorts of things,” he said. “They put out a couple of paragraphs to explain what their point of view was and how they’d like us to operate, and they’re always willing to speak to any team about what they might be planning to do.”
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