San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich reacts to a play during the second half of the team’s NBA basketball game against the Phoenix Suns, Friday, Jan. 5, 2018, in San Antonio. San Antonio won 103-89. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Isaiah Thomas’ debut with Cleveland last week came with the same rules as when Kawhi Leonard rejoined the Spurs.
His coach could use him, just not too much.
Both were playing under the dreaded minute restrictions, which coaches learn to accept but will never learn to love.
“It really is a pain in the neck,” San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich said.
Popovich has dealt with it this season with Leonard, Tony Parker and Danny Green. In their cases, as well as Thomas, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and others returning from injuries, the team’s medical staff gives the coach guidelines for how much workload they can handle and how often — a challenge even for a coach who’s been at the forefront of resting players.
“It’s difficult because it’s very strange to try to figure out rotations. You can’t do it,” Popovich said. “You want to put somebody on the court, but you can’t because of minutes, so you put somebody else on the court that shouldn’t be on the court based on matchups or what you’re trying to do defensively or offensively. So it’s really a mishmash.”
It hinders teams trying to develop a rhythm, but also affects the individual players by slowing the rebuilding of their conditioning once they return. That’s what Minnesota’s Tom Thibodeau faced in Chicago when Derrick Rose came back from the knee injuries that hampered him in his final years, causing friction between a front office and coach that weren’t on the same page.
“Sometimes you have older players, so you’ll cut their minutes back. Sometimes you have younger players so you’re going to play them more,” Thibodeau said. “If a guy’s coming off injury, you want to see where he is first, see where his conditioning is. So pacing a team, I think only the head coach really has an understanding of where you are with the team.”
Popovich doesn’t try to work out the math to maximize the minutes, joking that he can’t add or subtract.
“We all get like 14 assistants, don’t we?” Popovich said. “And they’re all around and, ‘So and so’s got to come out, he’s played seven minutes straight, and you’re a minute and a half over.’”