Houston Rockets: The importance of resting players
The Houston Rockets are having an incredible season, but their success depends on what they do in the playoffs, making it more important to rest players.
The Houston Rockets are in the midst of the best regular season in franchise history. They are currently 51-31 and on a 17-game winning streak, giving them the best record in the entire league. James Harden is the consensus MVP, while Chris Paul has fit in seamlessly alongside the team’s other offseason additions in P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute, who have given Houston a much-needed boost defensively.
While many still consider the Rockets to be fairly significant underdogs against the Golden state Warriors, Houston has some analysts thinking longer and harder about a potential series between the two juggernauts.
With the recent additions of Joe Johnson and Brandan Wright (who subsequently got injured in his first game with the team), Houston is deeper than it has been in many years, which brings us to the issue at hand for the team in the remaining month of the regular season: resting.
You know, that thing the Rockets pretty much avoided this time last year, leading to a burnout by several of their players (most notably Harden) in the second round of the playoffs. This season, anything less than a conference finals berth will be deemed a massive disappointment for the Rockets, and they must ensure that their players don’t fade in the second round again.
While the team is on an extended winning streak, they shouldn’t get caught up in sustaining it if it means high minutes totals for their key rotational players. As of now, Mike D’Antoni is doing a nice job of managing and limiting minutes across the board, especially as players such as Trevor Ariza and Eric Gordon have just recently returned from injuries and illness.
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With Ryan Anderson going down with an injury, that has forced D’Antoni to rely more on bench options such as Joe Johnson, Tucker and Mbah a Moute. This has led to less minutes for the majority of the starters, which is the exact goal for the Rockets in the coming month.
In the last 10 games, Ariza has played 32.6 minutes per game, Paul has played 33 and Gordon has averaged 28.5. While Paul’s minutes could be reduced a bit more to around 30-31 minutes per game, those lower minutes totals are exactly what D’Antoni should be striving for down the stretch of the regular season.
While all of that is nice, there is still one player who is playing more minutes than you’d like at this point of the season: James Harden. In the past 10 games, Harden is playing over 35 minutes per contest, and while that is right on par with what he’s averaging for the season, this is the time of year to reduce minutes, not keep them at previous season levels.
Yes, Harden is focused on securing his first MVP award, but is there any reason not to reduce his minutes to 32-33 per game during the remainder of the regular season? Harden has been so incredible that he will be able to maintain his statistical averages, and as the Rockets continue to win, his case for the award only strengthens.
A key goal for the Rockets appears to be getting the No. 1 seed in the conference, which may require additional minutes loads in certain games over the next month. While getting home-court advantage throughout the playoffs would be extremely helpful for the Rockets, they shouldn’t overwork their key rotational players in order to do so. If they were to play hard for the No. 1 seed only to lose in the second round, the season will be deemed a failure.
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The Rockets can continue winning while also focusing on the long-term, which will only be achieved by strategically resting players and managing their minutes load during the remainder of the regular season. By doing so, Houston will be better prepared for an extended playoff run.