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Our “load management” strategy has been horrible

infection

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First we have the Wizards debacle where we sat both MCJ and JC, when we could have staggered them. Then we go all-in on today’s and the net result is a close loss where have JC play 46 mins, Ingles 39, Royce and Bogey 40? Does running those guys into the ground help to rest some guys? Could we not have played Rudy today and sat him Monday when Conley returns, or even when there’s a chance Favors is back?

Anyway, this is dumb. I think we’ll need the mental edge of the first seed to go into the playoffs. We could have been the third seed last year but decided we didn’t care about seeding and tried to get cute by picking Denver as our opponent and then lost.

We can rest some guys, but let’s be smart about it.

Side note: I think we need to see Ersan in the rotation to eat a bit of Favors’ minutes. A lot of times we’re pretending his a rim protector in the same way we pretend Royce is a perimeter defender. Ersan may give us a different look and we won’t have to pretend he’s protecting the rim.
 
Our load management strategy is also kind of like our three point strategy: times where it’s super hot and you have way more than you need (like games when we’re up 15 with 90 seconds left and all the starters in), and times where it’s cold and totally costs you the game (managing to rest everyone simultaneously when one of your best two are injured), and then you run the remaining guys into the ground and lose when all you needed was one possession down the stretch.

A penny wise and a pound foolish.
 
Despite holding guys out and losing today, the Jazz are still favored to hold the #1 seed. Phoenix has to play @Bucks, @Sixers, @Nets, @Celtics, @Knicks, and vs. Clippers in their next 7 games before they play us again. At that point, the Jazz will know just how competitive the Suns will be for the #1 seed. The Suns later have a game @Lakers when the Lakers should be more or less at full strength. The Jazz have a much easier schedule.

My guess is that Conley was considering sitting out on today's B2B, and with Mitchell already out, the Jazz decided they didn't want to push Favors to play either. With Conley, Mitchell and Favors out today, that tipped the scale, and the Jazz decided to rest Gobert as well. I'm assuming at least Gobert and Conley will play on Monday and the Jazz will be favored to earn a split in LA.
 
If our strategy with Phoenix is to bank on them losing, then that’s often not a great strategy and tends to backfire a lot. The universe goes out it’s way to make sure we get the worst outcome, too, when we fail to put forth a bit of effort and expect “the odds” to play out. Go watch the last day of the 2019 season, for instance.
 
Yeah... Playing multiple guys 40+ minutes and Clarkson 46 minutes on a b2b is a bit of a "yikes".
 
Yeah... Playing multiple guys 40+ minutes and Clarkson 46 minutes on a b2b is a bit of a "yikes".
Yeah, I mean... if it was so important to play them those minutes to win... would not 20 minutes of Gobert have been better?
 
Yes so far we have been handling our "easiest schedule" terribly.
 
If our strategy with Phoenix is to bank on them losing, then that’s often not a great strategy and tends to backfire a lot. The universe goes out it’s way to make sure we get the worst outcome, too, when we fail to put forth a bit of effort and expect “the odds” to play out. Go watch the last day of the 2019 season, for instance.

The Suns still have the Bucks, Sixers, Nets, Celtics, Knicks (2), Lakers, Clippers and Jazz on their schedule, plus Spurs (3), Warriors and Blazers. If they can come through that with only 4 losses, they deserve the #1 seed.
 
The Suns still have the Bucks, Sixers, Nets, Celtics, Knicks (2), Lakers, Clippers and Jazz on their schedule, plus Spurs (3), Warriors and Blazers. If they can come through that with only 4 losses, they deserve the #1 seed.
The other end of that equation is that we still have to consistently win games.
 
Joe and jc just average 23-25 minutes, bumping them 2x is a recipe for injury. We could have given Oni more playing time. He just played 2 minutes !!
 
Couldn't agree more. Seems like a classic case of procrastination, or we didn't think about it and now all of the sudden everyone is kinda wrecked and it became blatantly obvious. Hard to know, but for a team with depth we haven't taken advantage to keep guys fresh. I could see an argument for working out bugs and cohesion. It's all a balance. My preference would be for a lot more load manangement. I think it's a bit of a blessing to have Don with a minor injury right now.
 
Joe and jc just average 23-25 minutes, bumping them 2x is a recipe for injury. We could have given Oni more playing time. He just played 2 minutes !!
I think JC can handle more. It seems like Joe has a history of significant decline when asked to play heavy minutes.
 
Playing all the other real rotation players ~40 minutes is a total debacle. I get wanting to win the game, but whatever gains the Jazz got with rest for some were more than spent on the other rotation players. Totally defeats the point, and I support the point. I was about to hop on with 11 minutes left in the 4th to say "just sit the rotation players, the game isn't worth it."
 
Does running those guys into the ground help to rest some guys?
That's the dumb part about this. The purpose of load management is to rest your players to prevent injuries. And by playing Joe/JC/Bojan those crazy minutes we are achieving the exact opposite
 
Also, this was THE game to play Oni. And **** Thomas got burn? That's more than stupid, it's a ****ing embarrassment. Dude is a bum.
 
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Also, this was THE game to play Oni. And **** Thomas got burn? That's more than stupid, it's a ****ing embarrassment. Dude is bum.
I mean at the very least, put Oni on Schroeder for that one last defensive possession. We all know who Royce is. He simply doesn't stand a chance in front of those flashy guards. It could've been Oni’s moment, but instead we have to watch Royce getting absolutely embarrassed yet again.
 
I mean at the very least, put Oni on Schroeder for that one last defensive possession. We all know who Royce is. He simply doesn't stand a chance in front of those flashy guards. It could've been Oni’s moment, but instead we have to watch Royce getting absolutely embarrassed yet again.
There's a timeout with 7 seconds left and we left JC and Bojan out there. You can't plug Oni in? He's sold as the reason we didn't need to upgrade wing defense and when we're down three starters, he still doesn't see the floor for a defensive possession?
 
First we have the Wizards debacle where we sat both MCJ and JC, when we could have staggered them. Then we go all-in on today’s and the net result is a close loss where have JC play 46 mins, Ingles 39, Royce and Bogey 40? Does running those guys into the ground help to rest some guys? Could we not have played Rudy today and sat him Monday when Conley returns, or even when there’s a chance Favors is back?

Anyway, this is dumb. I think we’ll need the mental edge of the first seed to go into the playoffs. We could have been the third seed last year but decided we didn’t care about seeding and tried to get cute by picking Denver as our opponent and then lost.

We can rest some guys, but let’s be smart about it.

Side note: I think we need to see Ersan in the rotation to eat a bit of Favors’ minutes. A lot of times we’re pretending his a rim protector in the same way we pretend Royce is a perimeter defender. Ersan may give us a different look and we won’t have to pretend he’s protecting the rim.
I don’t know. I think I’d rather get it over with with 1 o2 pops then stagger it and be at less than full strength for a week.
 
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