Post by eric on Feb 2, 2015 13:06:52 GMT -6
There are two diverging philosophies in the NBA today. On the one side you have Thibodeau and Jeff Van Gundy, who think players should play every game and as many minutes as necessary. On the other you have Popovich and people with any gosh darned sense, who think players should take off games and play less minutes so as to be fresh for the playoffs.
There are five players who have led the league in regular season minutes twice or more and led the league in postseason minutes twice or more:
LeBron James (two and four)
Michael Jordan (three and three)
John Havlicek (two and two)
Wilt Chamberlain (eight and four)
Bill Russell (two and five)
All of these men are Hall of Famers, four of them are top ten all time. Lots of minutes is good.
.
There are four players who have led the league in regular season minutes in the year they won a championship.
Norm Nixon (1980)
Wilt Chamberlain (1967)
Bill Russell (1965)
Jack George (1956)
Four. Out of sixty-five championships. Lots of minutes is bad.
.
There are 28 players who have played a combined 4000 minutes between regular season and playoffs. 19 did so only once, 7 did so twice, Bill Russell had five and Wilt Chamberlain had eight. If we look at a moving five year average of 4000 players we find...
...which in some ways stands to reason. The early era of the NBA saw the season slowly expand from 72 to 82 games, which is why the first 4000 didn't occur until 1962. Players played a lot more minutes back then, which tapered off over time, but the playoffs expanded from 2 best-of-seven rounds to 4 rounds in 1984 and finally 4 best-of-seven rounds in 2003, and also the players in the 1980s were just pussies, empirically speaking. However, since 2008 there have been 0 players to reach 4000 combined minutes. After seven straight years with at least one, the longest stretch since the 60s, the trend abruptly stopped. Some of this could be the arbitrary number of 4000, Kevin Durant just last year played 3937 combined minutes, but it's arbitrary for every year. My theory is that people saw how much effort it took to break down AND play the Thibodeau style of defense that won the 2008 championship, and realized that regular season rest was critical.
There are five players who have led the league in regular season minutes twice or more and led the league in postseason minutes twice or more:
LeBron James (two and four)
Michael Jordan (three and three)
John Havlicek (two and two)
Wilt Chamberlain (eight and four)
Bill Russell (two and five)
All of these men are Hall of Famers, four of them are top ten all time. Lots of minutes is good.
.
There are four players who have led the league in regular season minutes in the year they won a championship.
Norm Nixon (1980)
Wilt Chamberlain (1967)
Bill Russell (1965)
Jack George (1956)
Four. Out of sixty-five championships. Lots of minutes is bad.
.
There are 28 players who have played a combined 4000 minutes between regular season and playoffs. 19 did so only once, 7 did so twice, Bill Russell had five and Wilt Chamberlain had eight. If we look at a moving five year average of 4000 players we find...
...which in some ways stands to reason. The early era of the NBA saw the season slowly expand from 72 to 82 games, which is why the first 4000 didn't occur until 1962. Players played a lot more minutes back then, which tapered off over time, but the playoffs expanded from 2 best-of-seven rounds to 4 rounds in 1984 and finally 4 best-of-seven rounds in 2003, and also the players in the 1980s were just pussies, empirically speaking. However, since 2008 there have been 0 players to reach 4000 combined minutes. After seven straight years with at least one, the longest stretch since the 60s, the trend abruptly stopped. Some of this could be the arbitrary number of 4000, Kevin Durant just last year played 3937 combined minutes, but it's arbitrary for every year. My theory is that people saw how much effort it took to break down AND play the Thibodeau style of defense that won the 2008 championship, and realized that regular season rest was critical.
