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Atlanta Hawks: Should Rest Be The Priority Now?

By Adam McGee

Mar 16, 2015; Sacramento, CA, USA; Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap (4) looks to pass the ball against Sacramento Kings forward Omri Casspi (18) and forward Jason Thompson (34) during the fourth quarter at Sleep Train Arena. The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Sacramento Kings 110-103. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 16, 2015; Sacramento, CA, USA; Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap (4) looks to pass the ball against Sacramento Kings forward Omri Casspi (18) and forward Jason Thompson (34) during the fourth quarter at Sleep Train Arena. The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Sacramento Kings 110-103. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports /
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For all the talk about the fight for the NBA’s best record, or even just the No. 1 seed in the East, it’s getting to that time of the year where the Atlanta Hawks might just have bigger prizes on their minds.

They might not admit it, but I’d guess even the Hawks players didn’t expect to find themselves in this position so late in the year, but here they are. Now the big question is how do they maximize this opportunity? How do they ensure that this unique season doesn’t go unrewarded.

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I’d imagine this is the sort of question that’s starting to keep Atlanta’s coach Mike Budenholzer awake at night. Saying that, as a student of Gregg Popovich, and a long-time member of the San Antonio Spurs’ organization, he might just have all of the answers to that already.

One particular bone of contention between Popovich, the league office and many NBA fans for a number of years has been the controversial issue of rest.

In the modern NBA where players are more athletic than ever before, and are forced to hurl their bodies up and down the floor, from city to city, from night to night, for 82 games a year, rest has perhaps never been more valuable. Still, for a whole host of reasons it remains a controversial topic.

Some say resting players isn’t fair to fans who shell out top dollar to see the best possible product on the floor. Others will say it’s unfair and unprofessional as it affords some teams a greater chance to beat the team resting players, than others would have had playing them at full strength earlier in the year.

Mar 11, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer reacts on the bench during the second half against the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center. The Nuggets won 115-102. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 11, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer reacts on the bench during the second half against the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center. The Nuggets won 115-102. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports /

What it really boils down to is the choices of the management and coaching staff from team to team. For the Hawks right now, Budenholzer should be worried about nothing other than what’s going to put his players in the best spot possible to perform at their peak in the postseason. If that happens to be resting his players for an extended spell to close out the year, so be it.

Budenholzer has regularly rested his Hawks players, generally rotating the rest between starters across back-to-backs and road trips.

The most recent example of this being Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll sitting out against the Lakers, followed by Al Horford and Kyle Korver (he had a broken nose, but would have been rested anyway) taking the night off against the Sacramento Kings.

Will increasing the regularity of that rest help Atlanta in their pursuit of an NBA title though? Well, first and foremost, in the last 10 years in the Eastern Conference, there’s only been three other teams to have matched the winning rate of this year’s Hawks.

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    • How did they fare from there? With varying fortunes actually. In 2008-09, the Cleveland Cavaliers made it to the conference finals having posted the East’s best record and finishing out the year 12-3, while a season later they closed with a record of only 7-6 from March 18 onward, and tumbled out in the second round.

    On the flip side, the other team to have matched the Hawks’ winningness to this point in the year was the 2007-08 Boston Celtics who finished that season as champions, having closed the regular season 12-3 as well.

    In reality, it’s all about finding that balance. You don’t want to enter the playoffs having killed all momentum by resting your players for too long, or losing games at half strength, but at the same time you don’t want to burn out before the big show even begins.

    As the Hawks’ magic number to clinch the No. 1 seed continues to get smaller, watch out for the tightrope walking act that is handling rest. Among many other reasons, this is why you hire guys who’ve worked with the Spurs in the first place though, right?

    Next: The Rise Of Dennis Schröder

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