On Tuesday morning, the Warriors announced that Andre Iguodala would not play against the Mavs because of a left hip strain
"I would go with 'hip' every single night I was looking to rest a player from now on," 95.7 The Game's Damon Bruce said to Steve Kerr on Wednesday. "A little white lie goes a long way. Is it safe to say that Andre Iguodala's 'hip' is gonna look fantastic come Friday?
"I understand where you're going with this, but this was not a white lie," Kerr said in response. "Andre has had hip tightness the last three days or so.
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"He played through it in Oklahoma City. And Chelsea Lane, our physical therapist, told me after the game 'Andre really needed the night off. It would be great to knock this thing out over the next few days, so let's give him tomorrow off.'
"And I always listen to the training staff ... hopefully this will knock out any potential injury."
[RATTO: With resting players, there's one obvious solution for Adam Silver, NBA]
On Monday night in Oklahoma City, recorded six points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block in about 22 minutes off the bench.
Golden State Warriors
Through his first 57 appearances this season, Iguodala averaged 25.7 minutes per game. Since Kevin Durant's injury, Iguodala is averaging 29.1 minutes per game.
How much influence do trainers and/or physical therapists have in determining if a player suits up or takes a night off?
"Coaches have always had to rely on the medical staff to help them with the decision-making process," Kerr explained. "I think where we've made progress is in the amount of information that we have. As a coach, my job is to kind of gauge where the players are. But we have a lot more knowledge now with some of the technology where the training staff actually can measure how fatigued a player is.
"I think it's a little easier these days for the training staff to come to the coach and recommend something and have some data to back it up."
Kerr is an advocate for reducing the number of games in the regular season, but he understands that's not a reality.
"I don't think that's gonna happen," he said. "I think it would be great, honestly, if they cut it back to 75 games ... but, let's be honest, there's a lot of revenue at stake."