A Game Within a Game: How NBA Stars Rest During Games
In the era of load management and resting worn-out players, the NBA’s smartest stars have learned to rest during games
IN 2018, WITH no second superstar to ease his Herculean workload, LeBron James played all 82 games for the first time in his career, while also leading the league in minutes.
His feats transcended conventional wisdom regarding players in their 15th season. While he was still in Miami, it was widely assumed that, as he aged, he would spend less time as a ball-handler, play less minutes per game, and reside more often in post to conserve his body. Unfortunately, the Cleveland Cavaliers, particularly after Kyrie Irving was traded to Boston, never gave James that opportunity. He lacked a star guard, Kevin Love was oft-injured, and many of the team’s role players were highly inconsistent throughout 2018.
So how did LeBron, without an elite roster around him, conserve his energy to the point that he had arguably his best playoff run ever in 2018, while carrying one of the largest workloads in NBA history?
The answer was simple: walking.
According to Second Spectrum data, LeBron spent 74.4% of his time on the court walking, and his average speed on the court was 3.85 miles per hour. His defense, in the regular season, was very poor — that was another explanation for how he conserved energy during the regular season.
But, in the playoffs, LeBron was no longer a defensive liability, flipping the proverbial “switch” to become above-average on that end of the court. Interestingly, that was despite him becoming even slower in the postseason, at an average speed of 3.69 mph while walking 78.7% of the time.
In other words, the game’s best player mastered the art of picking his spots.
He doesn’t burn energy when it’s unnecessary, and he knows when to defer to his teammates.
As LeBron (who was notably frustrated by the notion that tracking data renders him as a “slow” player) told Brian Windhorst, “It’s just about growing, maturing and understanding that you play smarter. It’s not like you’re out there and you say, ‘OK, I’m not going to get back on defense here. Not going to do this here.’ It’s just about picking your spots.”
WHEN SECOND SPECTRUM released their tracking data in 2019, one of the more shocking comparisons in recent NBA history: LeBron James’ average speed was comparable to a 40-year old Dirk Nowitzki, who was playing out his final games in the NBA.
LeBron, coming off a playoff run where he averaged 34.0/9.1/9.0 splits, only managed a speed of 3.35 mph in his first season in L.A. Meanwhile, Nowitzki, who, at age-40, was one of the slowest players in the NBA, wasn’t far behind at a speed of 3.21 mph.
Besides taking plays off on defense (LeBron’s first season in L.A. was when his defensive reputation reached its lowest point), how did James manage to rest during games?
One strategy James has employed is using free-throws to take a break. Instead of lining alongside the free throw-line to try an grab an offensive rebound, he walks to the opposite side of the court, where he can set himself on defense. In doing so, he eliminates the need to play transition defense, which is one of the more taxing actions in basketball.
His teammate, Anthony Davis, has taken a similar strategy.
As one of L.A.’s best rebounders, one would expect that Davis would be one of the players trying to grab defensive rebounds when opponents attempt free-throws. Instead, Davis walks to the other end of the court, where he sets himself up for a post-up before L.A. even has possession of the ball.
Doing so makes it less taxing for A.D. to set up post-ups on offense, and it also allows LeBron to rest — typically, when Davis plays in isolation, LeBron can stand on the weak side, conserving his energy.
On a related note, James has shown a willingness to let his teammates soak up offensive possessions with isolations and pick-and-rolls in the regular season.
In a very Russell Westbrook-esque act, when LeBron doesn’t have the ball on offense, he’s often drifting around the three-point line, while not exerting much energy. From Anthony Davis to Kevin Love to even Dennis Schroder, James’ teammates have consistently been afforded the opportunity to play 1-on-1 when James needs a breather.
On this new Lakers team, with more ball-handling and overall offensive talent than any team LeBron has been on since the 2016–2017 Cavaliers, expect LeBron to rest on offense more than ever, allowing him to conserve his energy for the postseason and meet Frank Vogel’s expectations of him as a defender.
WHILE LeBRON JAMES is probably the most notable example of a player who can “load manage” during games, other stars have followed suit.
For instance, Chris Paul, who has always been known as one of the premier defenders at his position in the NBA, has taken a backseat on that end for years.
Since arriving in Houston, he’s continually ceded responsibilities on that end, deferring to his former/current teammates like Eric Gordon, P.J. Tucker, Mikal Bridges, and Dennis Schroder to take on tougher assignments.
In fact, this past season, Devin Booker — never known as a stout defender — took on more challenging defensive assignments during the regular season than Paul, who typically guards the opposing team’s weakest perimeter threat.
That isn’t to say he isn’t impactful: in a similar fashion to LeBron, Rajon Rondo, or Kyle Lowry, Paul is still one of the league’s very best at calling out defensive rotations; he’s had a positive impact on his team’s defensive ratings throughout the latter portion of his career because of it.
Meanwhile, Paul’s former teammate, James Harden, has taken a different approach to resting on defense.
Whereas Paul and James often cede responsibility on that end by guarding weaker offensive players, Harden’s teams are often very switch-heavy, meaning they switch on pick-and-rolls.
It was switching on pick-and-rolls that first established Harden’s most impressive value on defense: he is a surprisingly stout post defender because of his physicality and strength. However, more importantly for Harden, he avoids having to chase players around ball-screens, which is another one of the most taxing actions in the NBA.
On a related note, in Houston’s isolation-heavy scheme, both Paul and Harden were afforded the opportunity to “walk” on offense, letting each other take turns going 1-on-1. Harden’s speed in the 2018–2019 season, his last year with Paul, was 3.28 mph, slower than James’ speed and only 0.7 mph higher than Dirk Nowitzki — yet Harden averaged a career-high 36.1 points per game.
Walking, then, is an NBA star’s secret, an approach that allows them to conserve energy during the season while still allowing them to still put up impressive offensive numbers.
SO WHY IS resting during games so important?
I think the impact of being able to “load manage” during games — without actually missing games — can be expressed in a two stories from the 2019–2020 season.
Firstly, when Kawhi Leonard came to L.A. in free agency, he obviously requested that they continue his aggressive “load management” plan that would allow him to continually miss games during the regular season.
The negative effects of that plan came out during the playoffs, when the Clippers showed a lack of continuity and togetherness on both offense and defense, leading to their eventual collapse in the second round.
Secondly, when Jimmy Butler was taking on the Lakers in the NBA Finals and carrying an extreme offensive and defensive burden, it became clear that L.A.’s best approach to stopping him was simply to wear him out.
Butler notably was LeBron’s primary defender on defense and the Heat’s primary playmaker on offense. This led to him putting up two of the best performances in NBA Finals history as the Heat won two games. However, by Game 6, the Lakers discovered that full-court pressing him completely wore him down, and Miami never recovered.
Resting during games solves both of those issues: teams can still increase their continuity during the regular season, and stars can avoid being burned out by their workload in the playoffs.
Load management is here to stay in the NBA, but resting during games appears to be the wiser approach to conserving energy during the NBA’s 82-game marathon.
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