It's not about the days off in other sports ... it's about how done in basketball ...
The two sports cited as being similar are baseball and soccer ...
In baseball, you are playing 2-4 games in a location before moving on. It's generally known that guys may rest on a getaway day ... they often play 2-3 series per year in a location so more apples to oranges. Also, the nature of the sport differentiates the magnitude of any one particular player ... particularly a non pitcher. Most that buy tickets to see a particular player usually do so to see an elite pitcher ... the rhythm of the game makes that relatively predictable. And more than anything else, teams are trying to win each game.
In soccer, players tend to rest more in domestic league cup competitions early in the year and/or before significant matches with multiple games in a week. That said, most of those games with rest are staggered such that the entire starting 11 isn't benched at the same time. And the clubs that are more often subjected to that know that ahead of time and have the depth to be able to play those schedules.
The problem with basketball is that they don't stagger at all and basically throw out a guaranteed loss ... I'm not a big fan of any team walking into a game with an expectation of losing
Flags fly forever. I'm a big fan of teams giving themselves the best possible chance to hang a banner.
War > battle
Missing the point ...
I don't have a problem per se with giving players rest ... particularly if they turned an ankle, etc. where there's a reason to allow an injury to recover.
Where I do have a problem is in sitting your 3 or 4 best players just simply because it's the back end of a back to back. If you want to give your guys rest, then stagger it over the course of the next week. And in the process of doing so, make sure that you're developing your bench over the course of the year so that when you do give rest you're still playing to win the game.
Comments
I don't have a problem per se with giving players rest ... particularly if they turned an ankle, etc. where there's a reason to allow an injury to recover.
Where I do have a problem is in sitting your 3 or 4 best players just simply because it's the back end of a back to back. If you want to give your guys rest, then stagger it over the course of the next week. And in the process of doing so, make sure that you're developing your bench over the course of the year so that when you do give rest you're still playing to win the game.