The NBA has officially applied a rule prohibiting healthy star players from sitting out competitions. The rule prohibits teams from resting two or more star players at the same time, except in cases of legitimate injury.
While this rule impacts some NBA contenders, it won’t have much of an impact on the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
Although Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are both certified NBA stars, the league defines a star player as someone who has made an All-NBA or All-Star team in the past three seasons. Because Murray has never been a member of an All-Star or All-NBA team, the Nuggets are fortunate to be exempt from this rule. Jokic certainly fits the description of an NBA star player, but since Murray doesn’t, the Nuggets won’t have to worry about off days for either of their two best players. This is fortunate for Denver, especially entering the final weeks of the season when the top teams often choose to rest their stars.
The only element of this new rule that impacts Denver, and every other team with a star player, is the aspect of nationally televised games. The NBA doesn’t want its star players to rest during nationally televised games, and the defending champions have some of that, too.
It will be interesting to see how the NBA implements this new policy, especially with teams that typically list their players for injury management rather than rest.
