- Oct 13, 2001
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1:25 Mark 

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I mean I love A.I. and could watch him talk all day, but he played his last game at age 34.
Guys at 34 right now - CJ McCollum, Khris Middleton, Kawhi, Vuc
Guys at 35/36 who can easily keep playing - Dame, Jrue, PG, Draymond, Klay, Jimmy Butler
I mean there's more to it than that, but at the same time there's a lot of science behind resting certain guys at certain times.
from what i’ve read & seen referenced as hypothesis as to why load management has become such a ‘necessary’ tool are that players are coming into the league with more specific overuse injuries from high school, aau, college ball when in the past athletes tended to be more rounded from playing other sports seasonally, then there is also the increased pace & spacing in the nba such that today’s players are hitting accelerations/decelerations/speeds that were less available in previous eras, also supposedly there is less emphasis on hard/intense practices in the association today which can ironically be counterproductive because the difference of intensity between practices & games can be an unintentional spike in activity
You know that is a great point and I've seen that same discussion, whether on the Mind the Game pod or on ESPN and I even think some of the Olin Simplis type trainer guys.
What I had in mind was a scientific analysis that was first of its kind at the time that the Golden State Warriors did, using the movement cameras the NBA implemented, to predict when injuries would happen and resting players accordingly.
From 2016:
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Golden State Warriors use tech to their on-court advantage
To get to the NBA finals, the team tapped into the power of tech to help transform itself from perennial loser to a winning force.www.cnet.com
"Many say the team's use of analytics, video and other tech tools has encouraged its style."In some shape or fashion, every team has become heavy on using tech," says ESPN senior NBA writer Marc Spears. "But the Warriors are having tremendous success with it."In sports, the tiniest movements can reveal volumes about players' fatigue and potential for injury. The Warriors consider that information as vital as knowing each player's success rate shooting three-pointers." To gather that information, players wear a small monitor from Catapult Sports that tracks their movements as they practice. Worn under a compression shirt between players' shoulders, the Catapult detects pressure on their knees and ankles, and if they're moving at their usual fitness levels.Back in the day, we were just able to say, 'He's breathing hard, he might need to rest,'" says the Warriors' Thompson. "Now [coaches] can actually see if you need a day of rest or you need to go harder."The information helps the team manage players' workloads and reduce injuries, says Lacob."
Also I believe Newsweek did an even more detailed analysis, but here's something similar from Grantland in 2015:
"Weighing less than an ounce, these devices are worn underneath a player’s jersey. They track basic movement data, including distance traveled and running speed, but the real value comes from the health- and fatigue-related information they spit out. The monitors track the power behind a player’s accelerations and decelerations (i.e., cuts), the force-based impact of jumping and landing, and other data points. Team sports science experts scour the data for any indication a player might be on the verge of injury — or already suffering from one that hasn’t manifested itself in any obvious way.The devices can show, for instance, that a player gets more oomph pushing off his left leg than his right — evidence of a possible leg injury. They will show when players can’t produce the same level of power, acceleration, and height on cuts and jumps. Those are typical signs of fatigue, but there is near-total consensus among medical experts that fatigued players are more vulnerable to all sorts of injuries — including muscle tears, catastrophic ligament ruptures, and pesky soft-tissue injuries that can nag all season. The Warriors rested Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry last March after data from Catapult devices (used in practices) and SportVU cameras indicated their bodies had reached extreme fatigue levels, as Ken Berger of CBS Sports reported during the Finals."
If Allen Iverson was born in 2002, he would be getting his rest in games just like any other star player. Not even sure why this is a discussion.
Also reposting this.