Lionel Hollins: ‘I don’t think managing your minutes lengthens your career by one minute’
The standard superstar level for minutes per game is 36, and Tim Duncan hasn’t played more than 36 minutes a game in a season since 2003-04. This is part of the reason he’s still a dominant force despite the fact that he’ll turn 39 later in April and despite the knowledge that he played his first college game the same month Michael Jordan retired from basketball for the first time.
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LeBron James averaged over 41 minutes an NBA contest during the same stretch of ages that Duncan played college basketball, leading the NBA in total minutes twice during that span, and he has to take entire weeks off in order to rest his body just in the days following his 30th birthday. LeBron James eclipsed Larry Bird’s combined careerregular season and postseason total minutes earlier this season, and while we’re not going to blame his minutes buildup for his bout of leg cramps in last season’s NBA Finals, let’s just say we understand why the guy was cramping.
And Lionel Hollins, coach of the Brooklyn Nets, wants to tell us this:
Mind you, Hollins didn’t just say “I don’t like resting players, it’s an affront to my sensibilities as a competitor and I feel bad for the paying customers who missed out on watching their favorite players.”
That would have been completely understandable, and certainly something we all could relate to. Nobody is crankier than San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, and no NBA coach has more of an excuse to be intractable than Coach Pop – he’s earned the right to stay stuck in his ways after presiding over a dynasty that has lasted since the fin de siècle.
It’s to Popovich’s everlasting credit, however, that he hasn’t stayed stuck in his ways, and that’s why “his ways” (along with “his Duncan”) make the Spurs perennial championship contenders.
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San Antonio’s 2014 championship team looked nothing like its 2007 championship team, despite returning its three most famous players. Popovich would absolutely love to play staid two-man ball and work his stars over for 40 minutes a night, but he also understands that he won’t be able to play past May under this sort of direction.
Hollins isn’t exactly tossing his Nets to the figurative wolves, it should be noted, nor did he run his Memphis Grizzlies into the ground during his tenure in Tennessee. Kevin Garnett played just 20 minutes a game when he was in Brooklyn this season, and often sat contests out. Deron Williams’ dodgy ankles play just 30 minutes a contest, and though Brook Lopez has averaged over 38 minutes a game during his award-winning streak of ball, Hollins has rightfully seen fit to mind his minutes (at 28 a game on the season) in the wake of several career-threatening foot fractures.
Back when Marc Gasol was relatively zaftig, Memphis-era Lionel Hollins didn’t run him for the same amount of minutes that, say, Tom Thibodeau had to be talked out of playing Joakim Noah for during the 2012-13 season. Hollins is not hurting anyone’s career, and every time he hands Joe Johnson 40 minutes a contest, understand that the rubber-legged Joe is the NBA’s version of Jesse Orosco. That cat is going to be taking mid-range jumpers deep into the Chelsea Clinton and/or George P. Bush administrations.
Perhaps leaving minutes off of the ledger doesn’t change a career’s arc and decline. Perhaps some players, even given great health, drop off at certain ages regardless of their playing time history. The Spurs stand as the Working Great Example of How to Do Things, but Tony Parker (whose minutes have been limited for years) struggled for a solid chunk of 2014-15 and Manu Ginobili has not been without his tweaks this year. On top of that, San Antonio roared to the title last year because Gregg Popovich trusted Patty Mills, because Boris Diaw was engaged and in shape, and because Kawhi Leonard was ready for his star turn.
Of course, Leonard (born just days after Michael Jordan won his first title) averaged just 29 minutes a game last season and is only working 32 minutes a contest this year – not because Popovich wants to sit his stud for a third of the game, but because he wants to coach him in 2026; using the same thought process that moved Tim Duncan down to 33 minutes a game in 2004-05. Or “2004-15,” more specifically.
Whether or not any of this works, if you’ll pardon the play on words, is for time to judge. For Lionel Hollins to be so absolute in his dismissal, however, is off. Way off.
(Hat-tip: Pro Basketball Talk.)
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
